ASA Opposes No Surprises Act Fee Increases

Today, the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) announced its opposition to proposed fee increases on professionals and facilities using the No Surprises Act (NSA) independent dispute resolution (IDR) process. In a formal communication to the leadership of three federal departments, ASA urges the departments to not proceed with a new non-refundable administrative fee of $150 per dispute – an increase of $100 per submission. ASA also opposes increases to the refundable IDR fee ranges for single and batched claims. Under the new fees, a batch of 150 claims nearly doubled in cost from $1,219 to $2,423. The proposed rule also eliminates the current $1,219 cap on IDR fees for batches larger than 81 claims. The removal of the fee cap will discourage the submission of larger batched disputes. In order to ease the administrative burdens and cost of the IDR process, ASA also continues to urge the Departments to adopt less restrictive batching rules and guidance for anesthesia claims

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services released the proposal on September 26 and accepted formal comments until October 26.