Nearly six years ago, Congress and President Donald Trump came together to enact one of the most significant bipartisan healthcare reforms in recent memory. The No Surprises Act ended one of the most abusive practices in American healthcare by protecting patients from surprise medical bills.

Today, however, a new crisis has emerged. Recent media investigations have revealed that the abuse the law was designed to eliminate has resurfaced in a different form: a nearly $15 billion arbitration windfall that is once again driving up healthcare costs for patients, families, and employers.

Congress killed surprise bills — or did it? The $15 billion workaround raising your premiums

Anti-vaping hysteria keeps smokers hooked. Trump’s FDA is (finally) embracing reality

Hamas killed the two-state solution. Here’s the only path forward for Israel

To understand how we got here, it is worth remembering what Congress set out to fix.

OPINION: YOUR PRESCRIPTIONS ARE ABOUT TO GET MORE EXPENSIVE — THANKS TO A RULE NOBODY ASKED FOR

Surprise billing was never the result of patients making faulty choices. Patients did everything right. They paid their premiums and sought care at in-network hospitals, only to be treated by out-of-network specialists they neither chose nor, in many cases, even met. Later, they were blindsided by bills for thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars — followed by waves of collection notices.

These bills were generated by a subset of providers, many........

© Washington Examiner