Surprise Medical-Bill Legislation Gets Boost in Bipartisan Deal
- Compromise lowers threshold for doctors to use arbitration
- Measure would also raise age for buying tobacco products to 21
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Doctors would be able to take out-of-network charges to arbitration more easily under an agreement reached between House and Senate legislators to stop patients from receiving unexpectedly high medical bills.
The agreement would lower the threshold for taking disputed bills to arbitration to $750 instead of the $1,250 level approved in July by the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Legislation approved in June by the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions doesn’t include arbitration.