The No Surprises Act has taken effect at the start of 2022, providing relief to many health consumers.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) highlighted how this will protect consumers from surprise billing, particularly when obtaining emergency care, nonemergency care from out-of-network providers at in-network facilities, and air ambulance services from out-of-network providers.
“I think this is so pro-consumer, it’s so pro-patient — and its effect will eventually be felt by literally everybody who interacts with a health care system,” U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), a coauthor of the bill, told The New York Times.
About 20% of U.S. patients who had emergency care were treated by someone outside of their insurance network, including emergency room doctors, radiologists or laboratories, according to The New York Times.
Those who have a medical emergency and go to an urgent care center or emergency room now can’t be billed for an amount greater than the cost-sharing they are accustomed to for in-network services.
While the No Surprises Act protects against the cost of air ambulance services, it does not prevent ambulance companies from billing directly for their services on the ground.
