Earlier this week, the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions held a hearing on the "Lower Health Care Costs Act." The Big “I” previously joined other producer groups in commenting on the draft legislation released by Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tennessee) and Ranking Member Patty Murray (D-Washington).

The legislation was formally introduced on Wednesday as S. 1895 and was similar to the draft text released earlier this month. It includes five sections that would address surprise medical billing, reduce the prices of prescription drugs, create more transparency, boost public health and improve the exchange of health IT. Notably, the transparency section includes a provision (Sec. 308) that would require disclosure of direct and indirect compensation for brokers and consultants to employer-sponsored health plans and enrollees in plans in the individual market. The comments the Big “I” submitted before the hearing focused on this section.

Much of the hearing focused on the surprise billing section of the legislation. While nearly everyone agreed patients should not receive a surprise bill because their emergency care was handled at a facility not in their insurance network or because a doctor at their in-network hospital doesn’t take the patient’s plan, opinions differed significantly regarding how to resolve disputes over compensation between doctors, hospitals and providers.

In the legislation released Wednesday, Chairman Alexander and Ranking Member Murray settled on capping the pay physicians, hospitals and air ambulances can collect for out-of-network care. Chairman Alexander announced the committee would mark up the legislation on June 26.

Wyatt Stewart is Big “I” senior director of federal government affairs.