The following letter was submitted to House and Senate health care leaders, including the Senate President and Speaker of the House, as well as the House and Senate leaders of Ways & Means and the Joint Committee on Health Care Financing.
I write today on behalf of the over 24,000 members of Massachusetts Medical Society (MMS) to urgently request that the House support and pass a measure to further delay certain notice and disclosure requirements contained in the Patients First Act (Chapter
260 of the Acts of 2020) until January 1, 2027.
The state provisions at hand aim to empower patients with timely notice and cost disclosures, a goal that is largely achieved through the federal No Surprises Act (NSA), in effect since January 1, 2022. The overlap between state and federal laws, if implemented,
will create significant challenges and unnecessary administrative burden for physicians striving in good faith to comply with both laws simultaneously. This is particularly pressing given the current challenges facing physician practices and health
systems, especially as hospital systems and community providers deal with the fallout of the Steward crisis.
Further delaying the state provisions would alleviate these burdens, greatly benefiting both providers and patients by eliminating unnecessary administrative redundancy and streamlining the disclosure of essential information for patients. Furthermore,
it would allow additional time for the finalization of anticipated federal rulemaking, which will inform the path toward a substantive reconciliation of the state and federal laws. In the interim, the NSA will continue to protect patients from surprise
medical bills and uphold the patient protections consistent with those in C. 260.
We appreciate your immediate consideration of this matter and hope to resolve it swiftly to prevent an administrative crisis for physicians and patients.
Sincerely,
Hugh M. Taylor, MD
View a PDF version of this letter here.
