New federal transparency rules that protect you

Effective January 1, 2022, the No Surprises Act provides protections against surprise billing, or balance billing, under medical plans, such as those offered by Veradigm.

When you receive emergency care or are treated by an out-of-network provider at an in-network hospital or ambulatory surgical center, you have protection from surprise billing. What is “surprise billing”? When you see a doctor or other health care provider, you may owe certain out-of-pocket costs, such as a copayment, coinsurance, and/or a deductible. You may also have other costs or have to pay the entire bill if you see a provider or visit a health care facility that is out-of-network.

Under the No Surprises Act, you are protected from surprise billing in certain circumstances, such as:

• Emergency services. If you have an emergency medical condition and get emergency services from an out-of-network provider or facility, the most the provider or facility may bill you is your plan’s in network cost-sharing amount (such as copayments and coinsurance). You can’t be balance billed for these emergency services. This includes services you may get after you’re in stable condition, unless you give written consent to be balanced billed for these post-stabilization services. The No Surprises Act defines which types of services fall into these categories.
• Certain services at an in-network hospital or ambulatory surgical center. When you receive services from an in-network hospital or ambulatory surgical center, certain providers there may be out-of-network.

Learn more about your rights under the No Surprises Act.

Effective July, 1, 2022, the Transparency in Coverage rule requires most group health plans to provide publicly available machine-readable files that include in-network negotiated payment rates and historical out-of-network charges for covered items and services, including prescriptions drugs. This rule is designed to help patients know how much their health care will cost in advance of treatment.

Starting July 1, 2022, you can link to these files (provided by Cigna and updated monthly) by going to: https://www.cigna.com/legal/compliance/machine-readable-files

Note: This link leads to the machine-readable files that are made available in response to the federal Transparency in Coverage Rule and includes negotiated service rates and out-of-network allowed amounts between health plans and healthcare providers. The machine-readable files are formatted to allow researchers, regulators, and application developers to more easily access and analyze data.