Healthcare providers are "putting their eggs in one basket," in hopes of challenging the No Surprises Act's dispute resolution process, Bloomberg Law reported Sept. 27.
The Texas Medical Association, UT Health Tyler Regional Hospital and a physician filed a lawsuit Sept. 22 in a Texas federal court. The American Hospital Association and the American Medical Association, which days prior dropped an earlier lawsuit over the No Surprises Act, said they would be filing an amicus brief in support of the Texas lawsuit.
"It seems like providers are clearing the decks for this to be litigated in Texas," Katie Keith, director of the Health Policy and the Law Initiative at the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown University Law Center, told Bloomberg.
The Texas Medical Association won an earlier lawsuit in February regarding the dispute resolution process. That case was before Texas federal judge Jeremy Kernodle.
In August, HHS and the Department of Labor issued the No Surprises Act final rule. The AMA and AHA said the rule "suffers from the same problems" the Texas judge found in the earlier case.
Ms. Keith said providers are saying, "We’re going to support this other challenge before a judge who I think has been sympathetic," to their arguments.