The Neal bill was passed by the Ways and Means Committee on Wednesday of this week. It would ban surprise billing using an arbitration process favored by hospitals and specialty physician groups but opposed by insurers, employers and labor unions. Neal's legislation would send all the disputes that can't be settled between the parties to arbitration but require mediators to consider median contracted rates used by health plans, with the mediators prohibited from considering "usual and customary charges," also known as "billed charges." .Continuing Resolution Debate Grows Complex .TSCL's legislative agenda ."'I don't anticipate that anything gets there before Election Day,' Chief of Staff Mark Meadows told reporters Wednesday. ‘I think that was a concern that there might have been a look that this was done for a political motivation. That's not the case.'" .TSCL is interested in hearing your comments on this issue, and whether you have ever been forced to use mandatory arbitration to resolve a disagreement. If so, did the outcome satisfy you? Please send us an email. .Since passage of Medicare in 1965 all seniors received the same benefits for the same standard premium. But in 2003, Congress took the unprecedented step of passing legislation that required "upper-income" seniors to pay increased premiums for Medicare Part B. Forcing these seniors to pay more for the same Medicare benefits is known as the "means test." .While retirees won't be getting as much of an increase in their Social Security checks in 2020, the Part B premium, is expected to go up considerably more than it did this year. In 2019, most beneficiaries paid .50 per month more than in 201In 2020, however, the Medicare Trustees have forecast that Part B premiums will increase from 5.50 to 4.30 per month — .80 per month more—an increase of 6.5%. That's four times faster than the COLA. .In 2016, when there was no COLA increase, those people protected by "hold harmless" paid the same premium that they did in 2015, 4.90. Part B premiums rose to 1.80 per month. In 2017 with just a 0.3 percent COLA, Medicare Part B premiums were once again adjusted downward so that the increase in an individuals' Part B premium did not reduce their Social Security benefit. Because the amount of their COLA was so it left most people who were held harmless paying a monthly premium of roughly 0 or less. .The Congressional Budget Office recently released a report noting that Medicare could save 500 billion dollars if the eligibility age was raised from 65 to 6The figure would mean five percent savings, enticing Americans to work longer and causing the size of the labor force and total output of the economy to increase by one percent. According to the report, "Many of the people who lose access to Medicare would pay higher premiums for health insurance, pay more out of pocket for health care, or both."