Every year, millions of Americans are surprised to receive staggering medical bills after emergency or routine care from a provider they had no idea was outside of their insurers’ network—and often had no control in choosing. While one study in New York of large surprise bills for emergency care found that patients were billed over $3,500 on average, extreme cases can result in bills topping $250,000. Even careful planning may not always prevent patients from receiving surprise bills, as one in five non-elderly adults had received care at a hospital they thought was in-network but were still billed by a non-covered physician, whether an anesthesiologist, consulting surgeon, or other doctor. Yet, while stakeholders and policy experts agree this problem needs to be addressed, they disagree on how to tackle it.
On Thursday, October 13, the Brookings-USC Schaeffer Initiative for Innovation in Health Policy will release a white paper on this topic, Solving Surprise Medical Bills, and host an event bringing together representatives from health systems, insurers, and consumer advocacy groups, as well as policymakers and experts, to discuss solutions to comprehensively reduce surprise billing scenarios and resolve disputes over reimbursement for out-of-network care. This event will be webcast live. Follow us on Twitter @SchaefferCenter and @BrookingsEcon and use #SurpriseBills.
Follow the conversation on Twitter @SchaefferCenter and @BrookingsEcon and use #SurpriseBills
A summary of the event can be found here.
- Event Date
- Thursday, October 13, 2016
9:00 AM - 12:00 PM Eastern - Location
- Falk Auditorium
Brookings Institution
1775 Massachusetts Ave., N.W.,
Washington, DC 20036
Panel
9:00 AM- 9:10 AM Introduction and Welcome
Leonard D. Schaeffer
Judge Robert Maclay Widney Chair and Professor, USC Schaeffer Center
Trustee, Brookings Institution
9:10 AM- 9:45 AM Presentation of "Solving Surprise Medical Bills"
Mark Hall
Fred D. & Elizabeth L. Turnage Professor of Law,
Wake Forest University
Nonresident Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution
9:45 AM- 10-:45 AM Panel #1- Addressing the Growing Problem of Surprise Medical Bills:
Stakeholder Perspectives
Moderator: Dana Goldman
Leonard D. Schaeffer Director's Chair, USC Schaeffer Center for Health Policy & Economics
Distinguished Professor of Public Policy, Pharmacy & Economics, USC
Elizabeth Imholz
Special Projects Director, Consumers Union
Tom Priselac
President & CEO, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
Colin Drozdowski
Vice President, National Provider Solutions, Anthem
Jeffrey Plagenhoef
President Elect, American Society of Anesthesiologists
10:45 AM- 11:00 AM Break
11:00 AM- 12:00 AM Panel 2- Addressing the Growing Problem of Surprise Medical Bills: Policymaker and Policy Thinker Perspectives
Paul Ginsburg
Director of Public Policy, USC Schaeffer Centr for Health Policy & Economics
Leonard D. Schaeffer Chair in Health Policy Studies, Brookings Institution
Matt Fiedler
Chief Economist, Council of Economic Advisors
Neeraj Sood
Director of Research, USC Schaeffer Center for Health Policy & Economics
Professor of Public Policy, USC
Zack Cooper
Assistant Professor of Health Policy and Economics, Yale University
Jack Hoadley
Research Professor, Health Policy Institute, Georgetown University