Congress tightens surprise medical bill penalties to protect patients
H.R. 4710 — No Surprises Act Enforcement Act · Filed by Gregory Murphy (R-NC) · 37 cosponsors · Introduced Jul 23, 2025 · Referred to committee
Your members of Congress
Enter a ZIP to see where your representative and both senators stood on this bill.
Looked up on this device — your ZIP is never stored on our servers.
What it does
This bill strengthens enforcement of the No Surprises Act—a 2022 law that protects patients from unexpected out-of-network medical bills. It increases penalties on health plans and insurers that violate balance-billing rules from $100/day to $10,000 per violation, adds a 3x penalty for late or non-payment of independent dispute resolution (IDR) determinations, and requires regular public reporting to Congress on audits, complaints, and enforcement actions.
Why we flagged it
The bill's core function is to strengthen existing consumer protections against surprise medical bills by raising penalties and adding enforcement mechanisms. It is not a new right or program, but a tightening of existing law through higher financial consequences and transparency reporting.
What the text implies
- The 3x penalty on late/non-payment of IDR determinations may incentivize health plans to settle disputes faster, potentially reducing litigation and administrative costs for providers—an indirect benefit to healthcare providers beyond the patient protection mechanism.
- Mandatory semi-annual reporting to Congress creates a public record of the most common balance-billing violations, which may enable targeted legislative or regulatory follow-up if certain patterns emerge.
The full analysis lists 4 implications of this text.
Who stands to gain
healthcare providers (emergency and non-emergency); air ambulance operators; independent dispute resolution entities