The No Surprises Act: A Cost Saving Opportunity for Employer Plan Sponsors
Video: Getting Ready for the No Surprises Act - Thought Leaders in Health Law
The No Surprises Act, a law that ended the practice of “balance billing” by certain out-of-network providers, was enacted as part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 on December 27, 2020. While the law passed...more
The Massachusetts Senate proposed an amendment on Monday December 2, 2024, that would delay implementation and enforcement of the 2021 Patients First Act addressing health care cost transparency. Section 31 of the amendment...more
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals recently upheld regulations defining the qualifying payment amount (QPA). The QPA is a key factor in determining how much individuals and health plans must pay out-of-network providers in...more
Share Federal regulators recently won a large legal victory when the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld several provisions of the rule regulating Qualified Payment Amount (“QPA”) calculations under the No Surprises Act...more
Insurance coverage requirements for mental health and substance use disorders (“MH/SUDs”) is changing in a way that impacts group health plans, employers, and behavioral health providers. These changes are due to final rules...more
Nonparticipating providers have often struggled to recover fair reimbursement from vertically integrated, well-resourced Medicare Advantage Organizations (“MAOs”) through out-of-network litigation. The pattern is...more
In a major win for healthcare providers, on September 20th a Louisiana state court jury awarded $421 million in favor of an out-of-network provider in its long dispute with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Louisiana (“BCBS of...more
The wait is over, and now the work begins for health plan sponsors. Much-anticipated final rules implementing the Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008 (MHPAEA) were...more
On September 9, 2024, the U.S. Department of Labor (the “DOL”), the U.S. Department of the Treasury and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) jointly released regulations entitled “Requirements Related to...more
In the past year, healthcare systems and providers across the country have filed a series of antitrust lawsuits against MultiPlan Inc. and major US health insurers, alleging a hub-and-spoke conspiracy to fix and reduce...more
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has affirmed the invalidity of regulations governing the independent review process under the No Surprise Billing Rules....more
In a recent win for health care providers, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has affirmed a lower court’s decision to vacate key portions of regulations issued by the U.S. Departments of Treasury,...more
On August 2,2024, the Fifth Circuit affirmed the vacatur of federal rulemaking related to the No Surprises Act’s (NSA) Independent Dispute Resolution (IDR) process. The Court held that the No Surprises Act does not permit the...more
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit recently issued an opinion with critical implications for the healthcare industry. This court decision clarifies the expansive reach of the Employee Retirement Income Security...more
Out-of-network health providers recently won a huge legal victory when the Fifth Circuit Court ruled that federal guidelines regarding Independent Dispute Resolution (“IDR”) proceedings were unlawfully slanted in favor of...more
In a win for health care providers, on August 2, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a Texas federal judge’s grant of summary judgment in favor of the Texas Medical Association and LifeNet, an air ambulance company,...more
Two District Courts have reached opposite conclusions on the enforceability of arbitration awards under the No Surprises Act (“NSA”). The two decisions, while far from the final word on the subject, highlight the most recent...more
The healthcare industry grapples with a pervasive issue of providers overcharging insurers for medical procedures performed on their patients. To combat this, insurers have turned to MultiPlan—a data analytics firm that...more
The U.S. Departments of Labor (DOL), Health and Human Services (HHS), and Treasury, along with the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), released FAQs about the implementation of Title I of Division BB of the Consolidated...more
Within days of one another, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth and Second Circuits ruled—on issues of first impression for both—that ERISA expressly preempts state law breach of contract and promissory estoppel claims...more
On May 31, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals published an opinion in Bristol SL Holdings, Inc. v. Cigna Health and Life Insurance Company, which has significant implications for the healthcare industry, most notably by...more
U.S. District Court Judge David O. Carter ruled in favor of AGG’s clients on March 18, 2024, in a case involving “matters of widescale public concern” and a strong “public interest in access” to some of Cigna’s most coveted...more
Benefits costs continue to increase globally, and in the midst of high inflation and potentially a recession, executives are exploring cost effective methods to manage their self-insured health plans without compromising the...more
As reported earlier in the MedLaw Blog (August 9, 2023), a federal District Court vacated portions of the No Surprises Act federal regulations. Thereafter, CMS halted the arbitration process for resolving disputes regarding...more
Summary - The rules in the Consolidated Appropriations Act that aim to eliminate much of the surprise from billings by out-of-network providers in particular situations are the subject of continued controversy....more