Momentum Continues For Hospital Reform:
Better Solutions For Healthcare Applauds Congressional Scrutiny on Dishonest Billing
WASHINGTON, DC – (July 11, 2023) – Better Solutions for Healthcare, a national coalition of business and healthcare leaders calling on lawmakers to address the hospital-driven rise in healthcare costs, applauded House Education and Workforce Committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx (R-NC) and Ranking Member Robert C. “Bobby” Scott (D-VA) for introducing H.R. 4509, the Transparency in Billing Act–bipartisan legislation to protect consumers from dishonest billing by corporate hospital systems.
This bipartisan agreement by committee leaders signals continued momentum for reforms to ensure fair billing practices. It comes as corporate hospital systems face unprecedented scrutiny over anti-competitive actions that are driving the nation’s healthcare affordability crisis. Better Solutions recently released national polling showing increasing voter frustration and outrage over alarming and unreasonable hospital markups.
“Patients and employers have had enough of high healthcare costs and are demanding lawmakers rein in corporate hospital systems. Now, Congress is listening,” said Alex Schriver, executive director of Better Solutions. “There is a clear surge in legislative activity around the need to address dishonest billing, which is driving up the price Americans pay for care. We applaud Chairwoman Foxx and Ranking Member Scott for their leadership in advancing this important legislation. These reforms are critical to lowering healthcare costs and providing peace of mind for families and consumers. Better Solutions and its coalition members will continue to press for congressional action.”
Over the last few months, Better Solutions has mobilized to push for common-sense reforms that lower costs, including promoting hospital competition, reining in hospital price markups, and enforcing federal price transparency for hospital charges. The coalition, which also supports broader reforms to promote site-neutral payment policies, has endorsed dishonest billing legislation in both the House and the Senate.
ABOUT BETTER SOLUTIONS
Better Solutions for Healthcare is a coalition of leading business and healthcare organizations educating policymakers and the public about the role of hospitals and corporate health systems in driving up health costs and ways to lower the prices Americans pay for care. Members include national employer groups including American Benefits Council, National Alliance for Healthcare Purchaser Coalitions, Public Sector HealthCare Roundtable, Business Group on Health, and hundreds of local and state business leaders. Better Solutions supports proposals that address the root causes of high healthcare costs including ensuring honest billing practices, and combating anti-competitive hospital consolidation, egregious price markups in hospital settings, and the lack of hospital price transparency.
For more information, please visit the Better Solutions website or follow the campaign on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.