Yesterday was an exciting day in the Statehouse as we had some important developments on Out-of-Network legislation, A-1952 (Coughlin, Schaer, Singleton, Lampitt) / S-1285 (Vitale, Weinberg, Cruz-Perez), which protects patients from “surprise” medical bills. We also need your help!
On Monday, NJBIA along with other consumer groups, held a press conference and called upon the Legislature to hear the Out-of-Network legislation. And the Senate Budget Committee did just that, releasing S-1285. On the Assembly side, A-1952 was released from committee last year and is awaiting action in the full Assembly.
This time of year deals are made and hashed out as a state budget is formed with the June 30 deadline looming, so NJBIA pushed for this bill to be included as deliberations are being held.
As you know, NJBIA has joined a broad coalition of stakeholders— consumer groups, public employee unions, trade unions and other employer associations—to enact balanced and effective out-of-network reforms.
This legislation is necessary not only for employers, employees and all consumers, but also for the state to realize savings in the public employee health benefits plans. In 2015, statewide out-of-network costs exceeded $1 billion. Ultimately, these costs impact every taxpayer in New Jersey.
This is a victory for business, but the work is not over yet.
We need your help to get the Out-of-network legislation on the Governor’s desk! Please reach out to the Assembly Speaker and the Senate President as well as your local legislators and ask them to support A-1952/S-1285 and add them to the board list for Thursday.
Reasons to Support Out-of-network Legislation Today:
- Out-of-network costs play an increasingly significant role in the rising cost of healthcare for both large and small employers in New Jersey, triggering both higher premiums and out-of-pocket expenses.
- This bill will decrease the high costs associated with surprise out-of-network billing by:
- Requiring healthcare providers to tell patients whether or not the providers they are scheduled to see are in or out of their network.
- Requiring health insurance carriers to keep their websites up-to-date. This will allow prospective patients to know who is currently in their network.
- Protecting you and your employees from out-of-network charges for medical services received in an emergency at out-of-network facilities or inadvertently from out-of-network healthcare providers.
Recent news articles and press releases related to the legislation:
