After years of negotiation and proposed legislation, a last-minute COVID-19 relief bill passed on December 22, 2020, also included a ban on surprise billing under the No Surprises Act, which means patients will be held harmless for any bills for out-of-network emergency or air ambulance services and many out-of-network services provided at in-network facilities. READ MORE
An 11th-hour COVID-19 relief package was approved by both houses of Congress a few days before Christmas and signed into law by President Trump a few days after. The legislation, second in size only to the CARES Act passed last spring in the early days of the pandemic, provides wide-ranging relief to multiple sectors throughout the country, including physicians. READ MORE
The Transparency in Coverage final rule released at the end of October requires private health plans to publish their rates negotiated with providers. READ MORE
New regulations intended to reduce out-of-network balance billing, or so-called “surprise billing,” by Indiana physicians are set to take effect July 1, 2020. H.B. 1004 ensures that patients who go to an in-network hospital will not receive surprise bills from out-of-network physicians. As well, the new law requires hospitals and physicians to provide good faith estimates to patients when requested. READ MORE
Healthcare providers around the country will start to receive more of the CARES Act Provider Relief Fund in the coming days, including $20 billion from the general distribution and funds for testing and treating uninsured COVID-19 patients. READ MORE
Many providers received their first payments from the CARES Provider Relief Fund on April 10, but there may be a problem buried in the fine print. READ MORE
While the U.S. House and Senate continue to debate possible solutions to surprise billing on the federal level, here in the Hoosier state the Indiana General Assembly has taken matters into their own hands with a new House bill recently approved by a 99-0 vote. READ MORE
As the surprise billing debate continues, emergency physicians have begun lining up behind one bipartisan House bill. READ MORE
Two issues at the center of the U.S.’s ongoing health debate have drawn the attention of the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA): surprise billing and Medicare for All. In both cases, the ASA sees big problems with proposals that tie new policies with existing Medicare payment rates, which for anesthesiologists typically run about a third of what commercial payers pay. READ MORE
In this roundup on surprise billing, we offer a big picture view of the issue, with who’s proposing what and who’s not happy about it. Plus, look for lots of links to follow to read up on the details. READ MORE
