The No Surprises Act: A Cost Saving Opportunity for Employer Plan Sponsors
Surprise! What Hospices Need to Know About the No Surprises Act
Out-of-network health providers recently won a huge legal victory when the Fifth Circuit Court ruled that federal guidelines regarding Independent Dispute Resolution (“IDR”) proceedings were unlawfully slanted in favor of...more
On September 26, 2023, the Departments of Health & Human Services (HHS), Labor, and the Treasury (collectively, the Departments) jointly proposed rules (September Rule) updating the administrative fee and Certified...more
By looking at the events that have transpired since the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021, which includes the No Surprises Act (the Act), was signed into law, it is clear that the Departments of Health and Human Services,...more
On August 24, 2023, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas issued an opinion and order in Texas Medical Association, et al. v. United States Department of Health and Human Services(“HHS”)(“TMA III”). TMA...more
On August 3, 2023, the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (“HHS”), the Department of Labor, and the Department of Treasury (collectively, the “Departments”) temporarily suspended the federal Independent Dispute...more
Congress enacted the No Surprises Act (NSA) in 2020 to reduce surprise medical bills and to provide a simple and fast procedure for out-of-network health care providers to obtain payment from insurers. The U.S. Department of...more
A recent article by the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) and National Public Radio (NPR) raised the prospect that patients may still see surprise medical bills despite the enactment of the No Surprises Act (NSA)....more
On July 6, 2023, the HHS Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) released the first of five required annual reports on the impact of the No Surprises Act (NSA) on health care markets (the Report)....more
Employers have some new clarity on the No Surprises Act rules on out-of-network providers and charges under new guidance from the U.S. Department of Labor, U.S. Department of the Treasury, and the U.S. Department of Health...more
In the year following the implementation of the arbitration process established under the federal No Surprises Act (NSA), more than 330,000 disputes have been submitted for resolution. This figure far outpaces the predictions...more
We are not surprised by the continued stop-and-go regarding guidance surrounding the No Surprises Act. Most recently, a Texas court vacated portions of the No Surprises Act’s updated final rule (the final rules were discussed...more
Hosted by ACI, 14th Annual Advanced Forum on Managed Care Disputes and Litigation returns for another exciting year with curated programming that will help you make sense of these developments, and their profound impact on...more
To the relief of many providers and facilities and with just three weeks to go until the implementation date, the U.S. Department of Health & Humans Services (HHS) announced that it is extending its policy of not enforcing...more
Pressure continues to mount on the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to reconsider and revise its August 2022 final rule modifying the No Surprises Act independent dispute resolution (IDR) process. The rule is...more
The No Surprises Act (“NSA”) is a federal law that went into effect January 1, 2022. The NSA statute was enacted as part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 and has been implemented by three interim rules jointly...more
Air ambulance services often result in large, unanticipated medical bills for patients. A study by the Government Accountability Office found that in 2017, 69% of air ambulance transports provided to individuals covered by...more
Title I of Division BB of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 (the “Act”), and interim final rules issued by the Departments of Health and Human Services, Treasury and Labor (the “Departments”) in July 2021 (see our...more
The Departments of the Treasury, Labor, and Health and Human Services (the Departments) issued final rules related to the No Surprises Act on August 26, 2022, to be effective October 25, 2022 (Final Rules). These Final Rules...more
The “law of unintended consequences” describes the general sociological principle that for every action there is an unintended or unanticipated outcome. An influential examination of the concept was published in 1936 by...more
In 2020, Congress passed the No Surprises Act (NSA) in an attempt to protect uninsured patients from surprise billing. Some sections of the NSA became effective on January 1, 2022, while other sections are on hold until...more
We previously noted that the regulations implementing the No Surprises Act (“NSA”) appeared to be inconsistent with the NSA because they seemed to establish the qualifying payment amount (“QPA”) as the appropriate payment...more
On August 19, 2022, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Department of Labor (DOL), and Department of the Treasury (DOT), released “Requirements Related to Surprise Billing: Final Rules” (the Rules). The Rules...more
On December 9, the American Medical Association (AMA) and the American Hospital Association (AHA) (the Associations) filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia challenging the proposed regulations...more