Families USA and 66 Organizations Urge Congress to Close No Surprises Act Loopholes Driving Up Health Care Premiums

Today, Families USA was joined by 66 organizations representing patients, consumers, employers, and workers in urging Congress to fix a critical flaw in the No Surprises Act’s arbitration process. Despite the law successfully preventing roughly 50 million surprise bills from reaching consumers to date, a handful of private equity–backed staffing firms, provider groups, and corporate middlemen are flooding the law’s independent dispute resolution (IDR) system with millions of cases, winning inflated payouts that are being passed on to consumers through higher premiums. The letter calls on Congress to replace the current arbitration process with a predictable, transparent benchmark payment methodology that protects patients from both surprise bills and industry gaming.