What Your Clients Should Know About the No Surprises Act

Starting January 1, 2022, new billing protections will help protect consumers from surprise medical bills. Surprise bills are those that result from balance billing (difference between network provider billed charges and out-of-network charges not covered by insurance).

According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services:

The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 was enacted on December 27, 2020. It contains several provisions to help protect consumers from surprise bills, including the No Surprises Act under title I and Transparency under title II. Learn more about protections for consumers, understanding costs in advance to avoid surprise bills, and what happens when payment disagreements arise after receiving medical care.

Beginning in January 2022, consumers will be protected from out-of-network surprise bills for emergency care, non-emergency care from out of network providers at specific in-network facilities, or air ambulance services from out-of-network providers. Consumers will be responsible only for normal in-network costs.

For more information, visit the CMS website at https://www.cms.gov/nosurprises

For your clients, No Surprises: Understand your rights against surprise medical bills

https://www.cms.gov/files/document/nosurpriseactfactsheet-final508.pdf

https://www.cms.gov/nosurprises/policies-and-resources/overview-of-rules-fact-sheets