AHA-supported bill would ban health plan fees for electronic fund transfers

A bipartisan group of House members Nov. 28 introduced AHA-supported legislation that would prohibit health insurers from charging fees for standard electronic fund transfers to pay health care providers for services. Commercial insurers often automatically charge health care providers a percentage-based fee for EFT payments. 

“These fees effectively reduce contracted rates and cost hospitals and health care systems substantial amounts of money that could otherwise be invested into patient care,” AHA said in a letter of support for the bill, introduced by Reps. Greg Murphy, R-N.C., Derek Kilmer, D-Wash., Morgan Griffith, R-Va., Ami Bera, D-Calif., Mariannette Miller-Meeks, R-Iowa, and Kim Schrier, D-Wash. “EFT fees, which are essentially forcing hospitals to pay money to get paid, are especially egregious given all of the other financially-motivated tactics that commercial health insurers routinely use to delay or deny care for patients.”