Cheat Sheet
The No Surprises Act
March 4, 2021
15 Minute Read
Key Takeaways
- Congress passed the No Surprises Act in December 2020 to mitigate patients’ exposure to surprise medical bills and require insurers and providers to resolve payment disputes for out-ofnetwork care independently or use a new arbitration process.
- The federal law achieves the primary goal of surprise billing legislation: patients will be held harmless once the new law becomes effective on January 1, 2022.
- While the federal law will create a clear process for resolving out-ofnetwork payment disputes, it raises broader pricing, contracting, and billing questions for providers and insurers.