WSHA raises concerns on senate committee bill

WSHA submitted comments to the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) in response to the most recent version of the Lower Health Care Costs Act of 2019. The draft bipartisan bill contains provisions with broad impacts on health care, including surprise medical billing, price transparency and provider contracting. Washington State Senator Patty Murray is ranking member of the committee. In our comments, WSHA opposed the act’s proposal to allow insurers to apply default payment rates for out-of-network services. WSHA supports the dispute resolution process contained in HB 1065 recently passed by the Washington State legislature. Read more from Fiscal Watch. (Andrew Busz)