federal surprise billing law

Surprise Billing Law Stumbles in Court

A federal judge in Texas has vacated part of the arbitration process that is a major aspect of the No Surprises Act, the federal law enacted to reduce surprise medical bills. In the wake of this ruling, the Department of Health and Human Services has directed the entities charged with mediating payment disagreements to stop making decisions. In the Texas case challenging the fairness of the independent dispute resolution process that is a key component of the surprise billing law’s implementation, the federal judge found that the arbitration process unfairly favored payers over providers, most notably by placing undue emphasis [...]

Providers Say They Need More Time to Comply With Surprise Bill Requirement

Health care providers say they need more time to comply with the federal surprise billing law’s requirement that they supply certain patients with good-faith estimates of the potential charges they are likely to incur for medical procedures. Preparing such estimates for self-insured, uninsured, and other requesting patients is far more difficult and time-consuming than policy-makers thought it would be, provider groups insist, and they also note that there currently is no automated means of producing such estimates within the time limits imposed by the No Surprises Act, which was signed into law in late 2020. The requirement is scheduled to [...]