Fair IDR: The Only Real Solution

The key component of a fair independent dispute resolution (IDR) process

“Both the insurer and physician may present to the IDR entity any data they wish to best make their case for why their amount was the more reasonable amount for that out-of-network service in that geo-zip area.”

At this point in the debate, there are really only two options to solve surprise medical bills at the federal level: fair IDR or a rigged IDR favored by health insurance companies that essentially fixes prices and creates socialized medicine.

Unfortunately, some Members of Congress are seeking to insert very problematic “compromise” legislation into the year-end spending bill. Patients, hospitals, and physicians, among many other constituencies, continue to oppose this type of disastrous “fix” – rigged IDR, which is just thinly disguised rate-setting – to surprise medical bills.

For patients’ access to care, the nation’s healthcare heroes risking their lives during Covid-19, and the viability of our medical system in the future, let’s work together in the next Congress to solve surprise medical bills once and for all by implementing a fair IDR process.

Coalition of 43 Groups Urges Congress to Adopt Fair IDR

December 2, 2020

“Surprise billing” in healthcare — don’t reward the villain

November 27, 2020

 

Impartial Independent Dispute Resolution Needed for Surprise Medical Bills

November 25, 2020

Fair Dispute Resolution Offers the Right Approach to Surprise Medical Bills

November 11, 2020

 

Fair IDR: The Way Forward

To Protect Patients and Resolve Surprise Medical Bill Disputes

October 16, 2020

 

“These bills are on the rise – and insurance companies, whose purported role is to protect patients from these costly disasters, are the culprits driving the crisis. They are quietly working to cover fewer essential services, disproportionately harming minority and low-income communities that already suffer from a severe lack of access to healthcare and are more likely to be slammed with surprise medical bills they cannot afford.”

— Reverend Al Sharpton

 
 

“It is not necessary to hamstring providers and hospitals in order to rein in surprise medical billing. [Rate setting] would impose devastating cuts to front line medical providers and tilt the playing field in favor of insurers.”

— James Callahan, president, International Union of Operating Engineers