Pallone Voices Support for the Biden Administration’s Legal Action Against Efforts to Undermine the No Surprises Act

Energy and Commerce Committee Ranking Member Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ) wrote to the Biden Administration in support of its recent legal actions against ongoing efforts in the courts to undermine the No Surprises Act—a landmark law that protects patients from surprise medical bills. The letter was sent to Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra, Department of Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, and Department of Labor Acting Secretary Julie Su.

Pallone voiced strong support for the Administration’s decision to exercise enforcement discretion regarding the District Court’s decision in Texas Medical Association et al. v. United States Department of Health and Human Services et al. (TMA III) and the calculation of Qualifying Payment Amount (QPA) – the rate the law requires be considered as part of the Independent Dispute Resolution (IDR) process between providers and insurance companies. The Ranking Member also lauded the Administration’s decision to appeal the court’s decision.  

“Allowing the court’s decision to remain unchallenged would directly raise consumers’ out of pocket costs and undermine the No Surprises Act’s important consumer protections,” Pallone wrote. “I applaud the decision to protect consumers through the exercise of enforcement discretion in the interim, with the expectation that the Administration will prevail on appeal on its QPA methodology.”

Pallone was a lead author of the No Surprises Act, which protects Americans against surprise medical bills. To date, the law has protected approximately one million patients per month from devastating surprise medical bills, saving patients and their families thousands of dollars in out-of-pocket costs that average up to $2,600.

Since passage of the law, private equity-backed corporate entities and provider organizations have filed over 20 lawsuits in an attempt to undermine the law and its important consumer protections.

“The endless legal challenges, many of which have found a receptive audience in U.S. District Judge Jeremy D. Kernodle in the Eastern District of Texas, are seeking to judicially rewrite the law,” Pallone continued in his letter. “Unfortunately, they have been successful in this endeavor, as the court continues to hand down ever more detailed and minute policy announcements that are generally the types of decisions left to an agency implementing a law. Ironically, these lawsuits are threatening to stymie the entire IDR process— the process providers advocated for in Congress—as the agency continues to halt and restart arbitration proceedings in order to accommodate the court’s myriad policy preferences.”

From April 2022 to June 2023, the Departments have reported nearly 490,000 disputes, 300,000 of which remain unresolved as of June 2023. As a result of a District Court decision by Judge Kernodle, the Departments had to pause the initial launch of the IDR process. Since then, the Departments have delayed or temporarily paused the IDR process on four different occasions due to the various court decisions, further increasing the backlog of disputes that remain unresolved.

“I applaud the Departments for the ongoing work of implementing this important law, particularly in the face of seemingly endless legal challenges,” Pallone concluded. “I also strongly support the Departments’ decision to appeal the TMA III decision. Thank you for your continued work and commitment to protecting millions of patients from crippling medical bills.” 

Read the full letter HERE.

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