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December 16, 2019 at 08:13 PM
Sen. Lamar Alexander today said that the new must-based spending bill — the “Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2020″ bill — leaves out the health care market transparency provisions from S. 1895, the “Lower Health Care Costs Act” bill.
The announcement appears to mean that health insurance agents and brokers are safe for now from an S. 1895 health insurance producer compensation provision.
(Related: Health Producer Comp Bill Flies Through Senate Committee)
Section 308 of S. 1895, which was part of the health care cost transparency section of the bill, would have required group health brokers to provide detailed compensation reports for their clients.
The provision would have required health insurers to give the insureds detailed reports on the compensation going to the insureds’ individual health insurance agents and brokers.
Alexander, a Tennessee Republican who chairs the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, reported last week that he had reached an agreement with congressional Democrats on provisions from S. 1895 related to matters such as keeping people with health insurance from being affected by unexpected medical bills, due either to use of emergency care, or due to use of in-network facilities served, in at least some cases, by out-of-network health care professionals.
Alexander and other members of Congress who talked about the bipartisan agreement last did not mention what had happened to the producer compensation provision. They did not provide the text of the legislation associated with the bipartisan agreement, or a detailed summary of the agreement.
