What Rev Cycles Need to Know About the No Surprises Act

Just as revenue cycle executives are coming up for air from the CMS price transparency mandate, they have another date to add to their compliance calendar: January 1, 2022. That's the day that the No Surprises Act goes into effect.

The legislation has two main parts. First, it protects patients from surprise medical bills.

From a consumer perspective, the No Surprises Act essentially makes out-of-network balance billing a thing of the past. That's especially important for patients who live in states that don't already have such protections in place.

According to the commonwealth fund, 18 states have no balance billing protections in place. The rest have comprehensive or partial protections.

Although the legislation won't go into effect for nearly a year, there are things that revenue cycle executives should be thinking about and working on as they prepare.