The No Surprises Act (backed by Sen. Mark Kelly) went into effect a couple of weeks ago. It was passed in Dec. 2020 as part of a larger COVID relief bill called the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021. It protects patients when they receive emergency care or scheduled treatment from doctors and hospitals that aren’t in their insurance networks and that they did not choose. From now on, Arizonans are only responsible for their in-network cost-sharing in these situations.
A pre-existing Arizona law from 2019 (Senate Bill 1441) only created an out-of-network claim dispute resolution process covering cost sharing of at least $1,000.
CMS recently released several new resources to assist with the implementation of the No Surprises Act. The documents include a series of frequently asked questions related to the federal independent dispute resolution process and notice of consent requirements and frequently asked questions related to the uninsured and self-pay good faith estimates.
