Key House and Senate committee leaders announced a bipartisan agreement Sunday on draft legislation to prohibit surprise medical bills and raise the legal age to purchase tobacco to 21.

The agreement raises the odds of Congress clearing measures intended to lower some health care costs before the end of the year.

[Surprise billing fight highlights hurdles for bolder health care changes]

The deal — by Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn.; Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone Jr., D-N.J.; and ranking member Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore. — would prohibit health care providers from sending so-called “surprise medical bills” to patients that are inadvertently treated by an out-of-network doctor.

The lawmakers have not yet released the text of the agreement.