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
New York AG Letitia James has announced an agreement with MVP Health Plan (MVP) following an investigation that found systemic problems with the insurer’s mental health provider network. The investigation revealed that MVP’s...more
The recently enacted Texas Senate Bill (SB) 2544 imposes mandatory mediation filing deadlines for out-of-network (OON) facility providers. Under Insurance Code Chapter 1467, OON facility providers (including ambulatory...more
When a company faces mounting public scrutiny, especially in high-stakes litigation, it sometimes does what any crisis playbook might suggest: change the name. It’s not a financial reset. It’s a reputational one, and a...more
There has been a flurry of recent activity in a case originally filed by six air ambulance companies claiming $20 million in unpaid emergency services invoices. ...more
On June 3, 2025, Judge Matthew F. Kennelly of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois issued a sweeping ruling in In re MultiPlan Health Insurance Provider Litigation, largely denying motions to dismiss...more
On June 3, 2025, Judge Matthew F. Kennelly denied motions to dismiss federal and state antitrust claims brought by healthcare providers (“plaintiffs”) against MultiPlan (a healthcare payment management service) and...more
A federal appeals court just illustrated the importance of an employer’s duty to monitor service providers that assist with the administration of employee welfare benefit plans. In the May 21 decision of Tiara Yachts v. Blue...more
Welcome to the strange and mysterious world of medical billing. If ever there was an industry in which the charges and the payments have no correlation, the medical industry is it. Medical billing can indeed be quite...more
The US District Court for the Eastern District of New York in Manalapan Surgery Ctr., et al. v. 1199 SEIU National Benefit Fund, No. 23-CV-03525 (EDNY March 12, 2025), recently granted a motion to dismiss a complaint filed by...more
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 (the...more
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