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
Thursday, October 13, 2016 9:00 AM - 11:00 AM Pacific
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 Center 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