Case Study: Federal advocacy and citizen engagement on surprise medical billing

Over the course of 18 months, Blue Sky Partners coordinated with coalitions and local Texas leaders to help put bipartisan pressure on Texas congressional officials. After a sustained campaign of weekly outreach, in December of 2020, Congress passed legislation addressing surprise medical bills as part of their yearly budget appropriations process.

The Challenge

According to a 2018 Kaiser Family Foundation study, 2 in 5 insured, non-elderly adults received an unexpected, unplanned medical bill. Among that group, 31% owed $500 or more.

Surprise medical bills were an issue before the global pandemic and it was made more urgent during the crisis. Health insurance companies were increasingly narrowing their provider networks and reducing reimbursements to frontline providers to maximize their profits. In fact, health insurers are the most profitable entities in the healthcare system, posting huge earnings even during the pandemic. Despite this fact, they continue to pass costs onto consumers in the form of higher premiums, copays and deductibles.

While some states had passed bills to resolve this issue, federal action was needed to bring relief to consumers and standardize the industry. In a hyper-partisan political climate, compounded with gridlock at the congressional level, it was essential to have sustained, diverse, non-partisan communication to US Congressional leaders and within the media.

Blue Sky Partners community engagement vertical was able to sustain weekly outreach over 18 months to assist with the passage of this landmark legislation.

Legislation in the news: https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/21/politics/surprise-medical-billing-congress/index.html

What Blue Sky Partners Did

From June 2019 to December 2020, Blue Sky Partners was able to coordinate and deliver consistent communication from constituents to Texas elected officials.

Over the course of 18 months, 248 unique individuals took action to achieve the following:

Media

• Submitted 11 op-eds, 4 accepted; Submitted 33 Letters to the Editor; sustained social media outreach

Outreach

• Submitted 202 letters and emails to 13 high priority Congressional officials (36% of the Texas delegation) and both Texas Senators, Ted Cruz and John Cornyn
• Blue Sky Partners generated an average of 11.2 meaningful and direct contacts into elected officials offices every month

Value Delivered

Over the course of 18 months, Blue Sky Partners coordinated with coalitions and local Texas leaders to help put bipartisan pressure on Texas congressional officials. After a sustained campaign of weekly outreach, in December of 2020, Congress passed legislation addressing surprise medical bills as part of their yearly budget appropriations process.

Download the case study here.

About Blue Sky Partners

Founded in 2017 in Austin, Texas, Blue Sky Partners is a national consulting firm that manages executive-level projects for growth stage companies and teams. We work on the projects that are important, but maybe not urgent, keeping your long- term projects on track while you and your team focus on today. Each member of our team has a track record of building and scaling businesses — and in the last four years, we’ve used that experience to help more than 40 organizations launch more than 80 departments, initiatives, projects, and products. For examples and case studies take a look at our 2021 Capabilities Deck.