No Surprises Act: How
physicians can prepare and understand its policy changes
In a press release dated January 3rd, 2022, the
United States Department of Health and Human Services detailed new protections
for consumers implemented by the Biden-Harris administration. Described as
shielding consumers from unexpectedly large medical bills or unexpected fees,
included are restrictions against unexpected bills from out-of-network providers,
out-of-network facility fees, out-of-network air ambulance provider charges,
and more. Generally referred to as the No Surprises Act it goes farther to
restrict billing in private insurance for most emergency care and many
instances of non-emergency care.
Additional stipulations require that self-pay and uninsured
patients receive appropriate overviews of anticipated costs, their rights, and
programs for financial assistance. This attempt to spur competition in
healthcare and insurance comes amidst a decline in approval ratings and soaring
medical debt among consumers. More information and the release itself can be
found here: https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2022/01/03/hhs-kicks-off-new-year-with-new-protections-from-surprise-medical-bills.html
Hailed as a bipartisan effort targeting price gauging by
insurance companies, there have none-the-less been mixed responses. Doctors and
hospitals scrambled to delay the January 1st implementation over the
complaint that portions of the bill unfairly favor insurers1. In
early December the AMA, AHA, and an undersigning of individual practices and
hospitals sued the federal government to halt the rollout.
While the resultant case is still in trial, the rollout
none-the-less proceeded as planned, giving practices and hospitals 30 days to
resolve billing disputes or face arbitration with an independent entity
assigned by the government. More information for physicians on the subtle
nuances of this law can be found provided by the AMA, given in order to avoid
fines and law-suits relating to failure of implementation of the new policies,
it is advisable to see how the new law is going to impact your practice: https://www.ama-assn.org/system/files/ama-nsa-toolkit.pdf
Consensus among policy makers is that the policies will
operate to slow premium growth in the insurance sector, implement arbitration
protocols for settling medical debts, healthcare prices will be driven to the
middle (though its impact on premiums is still up for debate), and providers
will be pushed to join insurance networks2.
Written by Jeremiah Ockunzzi, courtesy of Dr. Bart
Rademaker, MD.
2)
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2021/10/14/1045828215/ban-on-surprise-medical-bills
