Congressional Committees Greatly Impact Legislative Processes and Orthopaedics

Douglas W. Lundy, MD, MBA, FAAOS

Orthopaedic surgeons are very smart people who graduated in the top of their medical school classes, yet sometimes our understanding of concepts outside of medicine is not as comprehensive.

Tort Reform: Where Are We Now?

Daniel R. Schlatterer, DO, MS, FAAOS; Craig Mahoney, MD, FAAOS

the purpose of this article from the AAOS Medical Liability Committee is threefold: (1) educate the membership on tort basics, (2) provide updates on the progression of tort reform, and (3) highlight all that remains to be done with regard to tort reform.

Federal Surprise Medical Billing Law Enacted Following Years of Influential AAOS Advocacy

Jordan Vivian

On Dec. 28, 2020, President Donald J. Trump signed the No Surprises Act into law. This legislation will for the first time remove patients from the middle of out-of-network (OoN) billing disputes between healthcare professionals and insurers and create an independent dispute resolution (IDR) process to settle payment amounts.

New Law Repeals Antitrust Exemption for Health Insurers

Kerri Fitzgerald

In December 2020, new legislation, the Competitive Health Insurance Reform Act, was enacted to repeal the McCarran-Ferguson Act. The law now requires health insurers to follow the same free-market rules as nearly every other industry in the United States.