Key issues impacting the affordability of healthcare in Montana include:

Surprise Medical Bills

Protect patients from surprise medical bills that result from unexpected gaps in their insurance coverage or medical emergencies, without reductions to in-network hospital services for in-network patients through rate setting or other mechanisms.

Price Transparency

Ensure patients have access to the information they need to make informed healthcare decisions, including their expected out-of-pocket costs.

Price-Setting

Oppose efforts to replace negotiations between private-sector providers and payers with government-mandated rates. While intended to reduce healthcare spending by some groups, this practice unfairly shifts costs to other patient groups and/or forces providers to accept payments at rates less than the cost of care, leading to financial instability for the community’s healthcare safety net and potential loss of healthcare services.

Administrative Waste

Advance solutions to reduce administrative waste and improve the timely delivery of care, such as streamlining requirements of health insurers such prior authorization and other processes.

Regulatory Burden

Reduce regulatory burdens that unnecessarily increase the cost of healthcare and divert resources and providers’ time from patient care. Federal-level regulatory burden alone costs roughly $1,200 every time a patient is admitted to the hospital. Reducing administrative activities related to regulatory compliance will allow clinicians to spend more time on patients rather than paperwork, and will support a level regulatory playing field.

Medical Liability Reform

Reduce unnecessary costs in the system by passing comprehensive medical liability reform, including caps on non-economic damages and allowing courts to limit attorneys’ contingency fees.