The Coalition Against Surprise Medical Billing, which includes AHIP and employer groups as members, rolled out a six-figure ad campaign July 13 against the No Surprises Act Enforcement Act.
Rep. Gregory Murphy, MD, R-N.C., introduced the bill July 23, 2025, and has garnered a bipartisan group of 36 cosponsors. The bill proposes increasing penalties for balance-billing violations and heightening cost exposure for plans, providers or facilities that fail to make timely payments following an independent dispute resolution determination.
The coalition pointed to recent investigations, including one from The New York Times, that highlights how some providers have been leveraging No Surprises Act arbitration to secure awards. Arbitration has historically leaned in favor of providers, with providers landing wins 85% of the time in 2024. In contrast, insurers’ No Surprises Act lawsuits have been resulting in losses as of late, with a federal court recently dismissing another Elevance case.
In 2024, insurers determined that as much as 39% of initiated disputes were for ineligible claims, according to data from AHIP and the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association. The ad campaign argues the bill does not address that challenge, nor does it tackle “middlemen” in the IDR process and consider arbitrator incentives.
On July 10, 58 employers and employer groups sent a letter to leaders of the House Committee on Ways and Means opposing the bill.
“The profit-driven use of the IDR process by certain provider groups and middlemen is causing healthcare costs to spiral even higher, and employers, working families, patients and consumers are paying the price,” the letter said. “Congress should be focused on advancing policies that improve healthcare affordability by fixing the broken IDR system rather than misguided legislation like the No Surprises Act Enforcement Act, which will only exacerbate the affordability crisis.”
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