Just as Congress was wrapping up work and leaving Washington, DC for the August recess, two Senators unveiled a new effort to tackle the ongoing lack of transparency in hospital billing. U.S. Senators Maggie Hassan (D-NH) and Roger Marshall (R-KS) introduced the Fair Billing Act (S. 2497), a bipartisan bill to increase billing transparency – a major step in ERIC’s work to combat unfair hospital facility fees.
Under current law, hospital systems often bill “facility fees” to patients who receive care at doctor’s offices miles from a hospital. These fees, added without any change in care, can significantly increase costs for consumers.
The Fair Billing Act would require hospitals to use unique billing identification numbers for each off-campus location. This ensures patients receive bills that accurately reflect where they received care—and helps them identify when they are charged unfair facility fees.
Finally—a bill that brings transparency and gives us the tools to hold accountable those who too often play pricing games that put profits before patients!
Employers strongly support the bill. As James Gelfand, President and CEO of the ERISA Industry Committee (ERIC), explains: “Without full line of sight, there is no accountability to hospitals. They continue to bill patients the same amount for services performed outside the hospital – and then add on facility fees – a double whammy for patients. The hospital gets paid, and patients are left footing an even bigger bill. ERIC applauds Senators Hassan and Marshall for bringing much-needed transparency and accountability to the shell games hospitals are playing.”
Why Employers Care: The employer community covers over 150 million Americans. Facility fees and opaque billing practices cost employers and employees billions annually. The Fair Billing Act is a commonsense step to curb waste, improve transparency, and make health care more affordable.
Learn More: Read a joint op-ed from James Gelfand and American Enterprise Institute’s Brian Miller on how Congress can increase transparency in hospital billing.