Protecting Patients from Surprise Billing

ACS CAN strongly advocated for the No Surprises Act, a law that protects people covered under most health plans from receiving surprise medical bills when they receive most emergency services and non-emergency services from out-of-network providers. There has been extensive litigation about the law, but only one case threatened the patient protections ACS CAN supported. In Haller v. HHS, a physician sued to invalidate the provisions. ACS and ACS CAN filed an amicus brief providing the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit with scientific data published by ACS on how medical financial hardship results in adverse mortality outcomes for cancer patients. When the Second Circuit issued its opinion upholding the patient protections, ACS CAN released a statement applauding the decision.