Legislation to End Surprise Medical Bills Passes Key House Committee

WASHINGTON – The House Energy and Commerce Committee today passed legislation to end surprise medical bills. Last month, the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, on which Senator Hassan serves, also passed legislation to address this critical priority.

Senator Hassan has been a leader in efforts to address surprise medical bills and worked for months with Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA) and other members from both parties to craft legislation to end this practice. The measure that passed the House Committee today includes an independent dispute resolution process to serve as a backstop in resolving disputes between providers and health insurance plans, similar to the one proposed in Senator Hassan’s bipartisan bill.

“We are one step closer to protecting patients from the unfair and outrageous practice of surprise medical billing,” Senator Hassan said. “I will keep working with Senator Cassidy and our Senate committee leadership to incorporate additional feedback to the Senate bill, as well as with our House colleagues to continue our bipartisan progress on addressing this critical issues facing Granite Staters and Americans.”  

In May, Senators Hassan and Cassidy joined the President for an event at the White House on the need to end surprise medical billing. Senator Hassan also brought Donna Beckman of Seabrook, who faced a surprise medical bill, as her State of the Union guest to raise awareness for the issue.                                                

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