The No Surprises Act intends to prevent patients from getting burned with huge, unexpected bills for medical services. It is a needed law – medical bills are the #1 cause of bankruptcy in the U.S. And it’s certainly noble in its intentions.

However, the healthcare machine works in unexpected and unintuitive ways. It has a way of moving surprises when we try to eliminate them. In this case, we may exchange surprise bills for new health access and health equity issues. And we will certainly create new surprises for the business. The law requires new and overhauled workflows, enhanced capabilities and technologies, and a solution to that pesky Provider Directory problem.

Oh… did I mention it goes into effect on January 1, 2022?

Giddy up!

On this episode, I talk with Gail Zahtz, CEO at PropHealth, as part of our ongoing Value-based Payment in 2022 series about The No Surprises Act. We’ll explore:

• What is the No Surprises Act?
• Who is affected? (Spoiler: The entire healthcare industry… especially providers… and around 221 million Americans)
• What is required to happen?
• What workflows are needed to support this?
• What unintended consequences could play out?
• Why and how providers will be left holding the bag.
• What providers, and the entire industry in general, needs to do right now.
• How this fits into our conversation on VBP in 2022.

 

This may be about as negative as I’ve ever been on this show. I love the intent of the No Surprises Act, but I’m fearful for what’s going to happen because of it. If you can explain this in a way that makes it ok, please reach out.

 

For full show notes and links: https://thehcbiz.com/178-the-no-surprises-act-is-full-of-surprises-vbp-in-2022-with-gail-zahtz-part-4/