Dear fellow physicians,

Another EM physician asked me what I think will happen if the “surprise bill reform” with a benchmark fix happens. I told her privately, but I am sharing so everyone can understand why I am working so furiously on a seemingly boring and crass issue of reimbursement. I do believe that patients should be taken out of the middle and shouldn’t be harmed by surprise bills. I do believe balance billing is a problem to be solved. But this fight between private equity and special interests is being used as a Trojan Horse to enable “an unprecedented transfer of market power to insurers by sanctioning government mandated price-setting.” The implications and impact of “all-payer rate setting” are far greater than the balance bill problem and will eventually impact ALL physicians and our health care system.

This is what I believe about the benchmark fixes for surprise billing that Congress is considering:

Health policy experts and economists with an agenda are playing dangerous games with the lives of physicians and patients. Physicians need to speak up and start taking action. We are NOT commodities to be cut. We are NOT waste. We are at the heart of medicine and we must make our voices heard.

You may not agree with me, but every one of us should at least understand the issues before deciding to take action or stand idle.

Regards,

Amy C. Cho, MD MBA

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