Today, the Federation of American Hospitals (FAH) sent a letter to three members of President Biden’s Cabinet reiterating support for the No Surprises Act and offering recommendations for the law’s implementation.

FAH President and CEO Chip Kahn writes that our members support the law, which, “First and foremost protects patients from surprise medical bills by holding the patient to in-network cost-sharing in circumstances where the patient has no reasonable control over the network status of the providers administering care.” He continues, “In drafting and enacting the No Surprises Act, Congress also importantly preserved the role of health plan/provider payment negotiations while creating a process to fairly resolve payment disputes. It is imperative that the implementing regulations and dispute resolution process advance and actively maintain that fairness so as not to inappropriately advantage health plans at the expense of patients and their health care providers.”

The letter, which was sent to HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra, Labor Secretary Marty Walsh, and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, says that the law’s implementation will require “significant engagement across the health care sector,” and a multipronged timeline because it contains several entirely new policies and processes.

FAH expresses its commitment to this continued engagement with the Departments to ensure  appropriate implementation and highlights three initial recommendations, to be addressed by the Departments in an upcoming regulatory issuance as directed by the law, and based on input from our member hospitals and health systems:

• Regulatory process and implementation timelines
• Determination of the “qualifying payment amount”
• Notice and consent process for certain out-of-network care

The letter also explains that FAH continues to “seek input from our members regarding other policies in the No Surprises Act, including the independent dispute resolution process (IDR) and advance explanation of benefits (EOB), and look forward to future engagement with you on those issues.”

The complete letter can be found here.