American Society of Anesthesiologists Response to Article on Surprise Medical Bills

WASHINGTON, D.C. – In response to a new Health Affairs article “Out-Of-Network Billing And Negotiated Payments For Hospital-Based Physicians,” the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) released the following statement reaffirming its commitment to protecting patients from surprise medical bills.

“ASA has been a champion of efforts to ban surprise medical bills, keeping patients out of the middle, and establishing a fair payment mechanism, including an accessible and equitable process in which physicians and insurance companies can address billing disputes,” said ASA President Mary Dale Peterson, M.D., MSCHA, FACHE, FASA.  “ASA supports legislative proposals to end surprise medical bills and protect patients. We have endorsed and worked for passage of H.R. 3502, the Protecting People from Surprise Medical Bill Act. H.R. 3502 currently has over 100 bipartisan cosponsors and it is modeled on the New York state law that is lauded in this most recent Health Affairs article. We look forward to continuing to work with Congress to advance a fair, common-sense solution to surprise medical bills like the successful law in New York.”

THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF ANESTHESIOLOGISTS

Founded in 1905, the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) is an educational, research and scientific society with more than 54,000 members organized to raise and maintain the standards of the medical practice of anesthesiology. ASA is committed to ensuring physician anesthesiologists evaluate and supervise the medical care of patients before, during and after surgery to provide the highest quality and safest care every patient deserves.

For more information on the field of anesthesiology, visit the American Society of Anesthesiologists online at asahq.org. To learn more about the role physician anesthesiologists play in ensuring patient safety, visit asahq.org/WhenSecondsCount. Like ASA on Facebook and follow ASALifeline on Twitter.

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