Looks like an agreement to end out of network balance billing

[MichaelB]

It looks like a bipartisan agreement has been reached by Congressional leadership to end surprise out of network billing. There’s no legislation yet, so this may still end up in the pile of lost causes and abandoned hopes, but there’s a fair chance this one makes it through the legislative sausage grinder and becomes law in the near future. From Roll Call https://www.rollcall.com/news/congress/chairmen-announce-tentative-deal-ban-surprise-medical-bills

Key House and Senate committee leaders announced a bipartisan agreement Sunday on draft legislation to prohibit surprise medical bills .
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The agreement raises the odds of Congress clearing measures intended to lower some health care costs before the end of the year.

The language and scope of implementation matters a great deal here, so we will wait and see how it’s written. If passed, though, it should at least be of benefit for ACA policy holders who only have access to policies with local network providers but want to travel outside of their home areas and are exposed to balance billing for emergency care. Fingers crossed ...

 

[REWahoo]

^ Should this actually come to pass it will be a great benefit to all. Well, with the exception of the news "troubleshooters" at our local TV station who find stories about huge surprise billing to be ripe picking. It seems like they are constantly touting how they came to the rescue of some poor individual who was blindsided by a surprise medical bill.

 

[CaptTom]

I'll wait for the actual text of a signed bill before making judgement.

Until then, I'll assume there's something in it for the campaign contributors (read: insurance companies and large donors) and very little for most citizens.