No Surprises Act takes effect in 2022, limiting unexpected medical bills

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Going to the emergency room is already stressful enough, so the last thing you want to worry about is an expensive, unexpected bill.

A new law starting Jan. 1 gives you protection against most surprise medical bills from out-of-network health care providers.

Consumer groups say those surprise bills happen more often than you think. U.S. PIRG reports about one in five emergency room visits ends in a surprise bill, with prices ranging from hundreds to thousands of dollars.

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Nicki Pogue was one of those people recently. She was about to celebrate her 50th birthday when she got sick.

“I had shortness of breath, tingling in my hands and feet, really rapid heart rate, everything was just feeling wrong,” said Pogue.

She went to the hospital, where she was treated for a viral syndrome. At the time, Pogue didn’t know the hospital didn’t have any negotiated rates with her insurance company.

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She got hit with an unexpected charge about a month later.

“I got a balance due for $10,000 and I thought there’s no way,” said Pogue.

Starting January 1, there will be new federal regulations to prevent those charges.

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Under the No Surprises Act, if you go to the ER for emergency treatment or you’re taken to the hospital by helicopter, there won’t be an out-of-network bill for those services.

“These are bills that we are doing our best to avoid but we’re being charged and held accountable to them anyway,” said Patricia Kelmar, healthcare campaigns director at U.S. PIRG.

Kelmar said the new law also protects patients who booked services within their network and still had surprise charges.

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“They will not be charged for those surprise bills that we’ve been seeing from radiologists, anesthesiologists, scrubbing surgeons, these are all people that were totally expecting to be covered because we’ve gone to an in-network facility, but we’ve been paying out of network charges for them,” said Kelmar.

You can call this national hotline at 1-800-985-3059 to report suspected surprise bills but the Department of Health and Human Services won’t accept calls until Jan. 1, 2022.

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