Washington, DC – August 18, 2025 – The Emergency Department Practice Management Association (EDPMA) is pleased to announce a new strategic partnership with PayerPrice, a leading software platform specializing in healthcare pricing and reimbursement transparency. This new relationship brings exclusive benefits to EDPMA members, including discounted access to PayerPrice’s powerful data tools, educational content, and member-focused programming designed to help emergency medicine groups strengthen revenue cycle performance.

As part of EDPMA’s broader commitment to equipping members with the tools they need to succeed in an increasingly complex healthcare environment, this partnership will deliver timely insights, practical resources, and discounted services through a structured affinity agreement. EDPMA members will receive 25 percent off PayerPrice’s core software offerings, which help emergency medicine and hospitalist providers understand payer behavior, track reimbursement trends, and make more informed decisions around negotiation, contract management, and advocacy.

“EDPMA members are facing a rapidly shifting reimbursement landscape,” said Matt Clark, Senior Account Director at EDPMA. “We are always looking for solutions that can support our members and give them a strategic edge. PayerPrice offers precisely that. Their tools give emergency medicine groups real visibility into how they’re being paid and where opportunities for improvement exist. This partnership is not just a benefit; it’s a way to help our members navigate some of the biggest challenges facing their practices today.”

Members can expect to see a variety of new educational and marketing touchpoints, including monthly dedicated communications, quarterly payer updates, webinars, and a case study highlighting how EDPMA members are already using PayerPrice tools to drive results. Members will also have the opportunity to engage with the PayerPrice team at key EDPMA events including the Solutions Summit and RCM Workshop.

“PayerPrice has transformed the way my clients approach reimbursement,” said Juli Forde-Smith, Vice Chair of EDPMA and Principal at Rev4ward, LLC. “Having real-time insight into payer behavior has allowed us to identify trends faster, negotiate more effectively, and make smarter revenue decisions. I’m excited that EDPMA members will now have access to these same tools to strengthen their financial performance in today’s challenging healthcare environment.”

PayerPrice “EDPMA is a fantastic partner. We’ve deeply appreciated the collaborative nature of EDPMA events, where providers and vendors can cocreate much-needed industry solutions. Separately, the collegial culture of the EDPMA is deeply felt, and it shows in their advocacy efforts.” said Roger Hau, CEO, PayerPrice.

This partnership reflects EDPMA’s ongoing commitment to delivering meaningful value to its members. By collaborating with forward-thinking organizations like PayerPrice, EDPMA is focused on ensuring its members are better equipped to respond to evolving reimbursement models, payer complexities, and financial pressures. As emergency medicine practices navigate increasingly difficult operational and policy challenges, access to real-time, data-driven insight will be essential to long-term sustainability and growth.

EDPMA encourages all members to take advantage of this new offering and explore how PayerPrice can support your group’s financial and operational goals.

To learn more about the partnership or how to access your member discount, please contact the EDPMA staff at [email protected] or visit PayerPrice’s webpage.

(July 23, 2025) The Emergency Department Practice Management Association (EDPMA), the nation’s only professional trade association dedicated to delivering high-quality, cost-effective care in the emergency department, supports the introduction of the No Surprises Act Enforcement Act which aims to ensure timely payment of arbitration awards under the No Surprises Act’s (NSA) Independent Dispute Resolution Process, thereby preserving the nation’s healthcare safety net.

Emergency departments are the cornerstone of our healthcare system, delivering life-saving care to anyone, at any time, regardless of insurance status or ability to pay. This bill, which reinforces the NSA’s timely reimbursement requirements, helps to ensure emergency departments, hospitals, and other critical care providers can continue delivering high-quality, accessible care without financial uncertainty, particularly in underserved and rural areas.

Limited enforcement and minimal consequences for health plans have left emergency departments and physician practices burdened by inadequate initial payments and ongoing noncompliance with independent arbitration decisions, despite legal requirements for timely payment. To ensure continued and uninterrupted access to critical care, a stable financial foundation built on sufficient, timely, and consistent reimbursement is essential, which is why EDPMA supports today’s enforcement legislation.

A bipartisan group of legislators (Rep. Greg Murphy, M.D. (R-NC), joined by Reps. Ruiz, M.D. (D-CA), Joyce, M.D. (R-PA), Panetta (D-CA), Onder M.D. (R-MO) and Schrier, M.D. (D-WA) as original cosponsors), of The No Surprises Act Enforcement Act. Sens. Marshall M.D. (R-KS) and Bennet (D-CO) simultaneously reintroduced the bill in Senate.

With this legislation, health insurance companies that fail to pay providers in a timely manner after an independent dispute resolution decision will face consequences for ignoring clear statutory obligations. The legislation is designed to reinforce the fair and balanced process that Congress provided in the original No Surprises Act.

“EDPMA fully supports the patient protections established in the No Surprises Act and welcomes this necessary step by Congress to enforce the law as intended. By ensuring fair and timely reimbursement, this bill allows emergency physicians and hospital teams to focus on what matters most, delivering high-quality patient care and improving health outcomes,” said EDPMA Chair, William Freudenthal, MD. “Independent dispute resolution outcomes have consistently confirmed that insurers are underpaying providers at unsustainable rates, putting community-based practices and patient access to care at risk. Health plans that have been exploiting the No Surprises Act will finally be held accountable.”

EDPMA applauds the introduction of this critical legislation. If enacted, it will ensure that insurance companies pay emergency physicians and their practices fairly and on time—allowing them to continue providing essential care without financial uncertainty, becoming a barrier to timely treatment. EDPMA urges both the House and Senate to swiftly advance and pass this bipartisan bill.

A new report by RAND Health Care, which promotes healthier societies by improving health care systems in the United States and other countries, finds the viability of U.S. hospital-based emergency care in peril, with increasingly complex needs and falling payments for physicians.

Federal law requires anyone who seeks care at an emergency department to be assessed and stabilized, regardless of their ability to pay. U.S. hospital emergency department visits have returned to pre-COVID levels, with 120 to 140 million visits annually.

Emergency departments are experiencing the boarding of patients in emergency department beds, increased patient visit complexity, and a significant increase in uncompensated or undercompensated care from both public and private payors. Reimbursement pressures place physician groups at financial risk, with small independent practices in even greater danger. The result is reduced access to care, extended emergency department wait times, and worse patient outcomes.

The RAND study shows Medicare and Medicaid payments to emergency department physicians fell 3.8% per visit from 2018 to 2022. Payments for commercially insured in-network patient visits dropped by 10.9%, while payments for commercial out-of-network visits dropped by 48% over the period studied.

Mahshid Abir, the report’s lead author and a senior physician policy researcher at RAND, stated:

“Urgent action is needed to sustain hospital emergency departments, which act as a safeguard for patients who use the services and communities that rely on them during a crisis. Unless these challenges are addressed, there is an increasing risk that emergency departments will close, more doctors and nurses will leave emergency medicine, and patients will face even longer waits for care.”

The study recommends policy action to ensure the availability and viability of Emergency Medicine, including:

• Shift the responsibility of collecting patient cost-sharing amounts from providers to insurers for clinical care mandated by EMTALA.
• Direct funding mechanisms that would federally fund Emergency Medicine (e.g., DSH for emergency physicians, HRSA funding to supplement EMTALA-mandated care).
• Increase allowed amounts from government payers.

In response to this study, the Emergency Department Practice Management Association (EDPMA), the nation’s only professional physician trade association focused on the delivery of high-quality, cost-effective care in the emergency department, issued the following statement:

“The Emergency Department is the only medical setting that provides care to all patients, regardless of their ability to pay, making it the critical safety net of the U.S. healthcare system. Yet, as emergency visits and severity continue to rise yearly, payments to physicians decrease, as shown by the RAND study. Without urgent and significant policy changes to support emergency medicine providers, the availability of, and access to, care will decline, wait times will increase, and patient outcomes will worsen—particularly for those in greatest need of care.”

The RAND report, which received support from the Emergency Medicine Policy Institute, is based on interviews and focus groups with emergency medicine professionals, a survey of more than 200 emergency medicine department leaders, case studies, a review of other published research, and analysis of deidentified claims data. The study was overseen by a 13-member advisory board that included emergency medicine professionals, emergency care policy experts, and other health care experts.

For more information on the RAND study, visit www.rand.org.

For EDPMA media inquiries, email Robin Applebaum or Kate Wells.

The Emergency Department Practice Management Association (EDPMA) is committed to ensuring that patients receive timely access to emergency care no matter when their emergency
happens. This commitment requires the resources necessary to deliver care in our nation’s emergency departments in a sustainable environment – in every state of our union.

Unfortunately, emergency medicine physicians and their clinical practices continue to face unprecedented financial and operational challenges as we address markedly increasing clinical
demands in a setting of well-known health care workforce shortages. The realities of stagnant and declining reimbursement are further complicated by outdated regulatory stipulations that
impose significant administrative burdens.

Click here to read the full statement.

McLean, VA – The Emergency Department Practice Management Association (EDPMA) is throwing its full support behind newly introduced legislation aimed at supporting timely provider payments by health insurance companies, in order to preserve our nation’s healthcare safety net.

EDPMA has long supported the patient protections in the No Surprises Act (NSA). However, years after the NSA’s implementation, and despite clear requirements in the law itself, health insurance companies are repeatedly failing to pay physicians within 30 days after losing in the independent dispute resolution (IDR) process provided in the law.

Today, a bipartisan group of legislators (Rep. Greg Murphy, M.D. (R-NC), joined by Reps. Ruiz, M.D. (D-CA), Joyce, M.D. (R-PA), Panetta (D-CA), and Schrier, M.D. (D-WA) as original cosponsors), introduced H.R. 9572, The No Surprises Act Enforcement Act. With this legislation, health insurance companies that fail to pay providers in a timely manner after an independent dispute resolution decision will face consequences for ignoring clear statutory obligations. The legislation is designed to reinforce the fair and balanced process that Congress provided in the original No Surprises Act.

Currently, with very limited enforcement and insufficient consequences for health plans that ignore the NSA’s requirements, physician practices continue to feel significant strain from low initial payments and later, from failure of health plans to pay the amounts fairly awarded by an independent arbiter, even though timely payment is required by law.

Since 1987, the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) federal law has required that emergency physicians provide an evaluation and stabilizing treatment for any patient that seeks medical care, regardless of their ability to pay. Under the NSA, if the insurer’s payment for out of network clinical care is inadequate, an emergency physician can dispute the low payment amount through the NSA’s Independent Dispute Resolution process.

When the independent arbiter rules in favor of the physician, the insurer is legally obligated to pay the awarded amount within 30 days. Public data indicates that approximately 80% of the time, independent arbiters have found the physician’s request to be more reasonable than the health plan’s initial payment. However, the additional amounts owed by health plans have not been paid consistently, or have not been paid at all, despite the clear requirements in the law. An April 2024 EDPMA survey about the NSA, members noted that in disputes where the provider was the prevailing party, 24% were still not paid or were paid correctly within the 30 day requirement in the law.

“With this bill, insurance companies that have been exploiting the No Surprises Act will finally be held accountable,” said EDPMA Chair Andrea Brault, MD, FACEP, MMM. “In the Independent dispute resolution process, independent arbiters have agreed that insurers are paying providers inordinately low rates a large majority of the time, which already jeopardizes community-based practices and patient access to care. We support all of the patient protections in the NSA and now, urge Congress to hold health plans accountable for their obligations under the law.”

The proposed legislation, H.R. 9572, will require health plans to pay interest and penalties on unpaid amounts due to providers under the No Surprises Act.

EDPMA urges Congress to pass this bill to ensure that insurance companies pay physicians and their practices fairly and promptly, allowing them to continue providing essential care to their patients.

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About EDPMA

The Emergency Department Practice Management Association (EDPMA) is the nation’s only professional trade association focused on the delivery of high-quality, cost-effective care in the emergency department. EDPMA’s membership includes emergency medicine physician groups of all sizes, billing, coding, and other professional support organizations that assist healthcare clinicians in our nation’s emergency departments. Together, EDPMA members see or support 60% of all annual emergency department visits in the country. www.edpma.org

Contact:

Cathey Wise, CAE EDPMA Executive Director
817.905.3310
[email protected]

Download the PDF version of this press release here.