When the No Surprises Act came into effect in 2022, it was hailed as a major step forward in protecting patients from unfair, unexpected medical expenses. Spearheaded by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), the law was designed to end surprise billing—particularly in emergencies, where patients unknowingly received out-of-network care at in-network facilities.
For Many Patients, Surprise Bills are Far from a Thing of the Past.
Take Jessica Chen, a physician assistant in Massachusetts, who recently visited Lowell General Hospital, part of Tufts Medicine, for a mammogram and sonogram. Before the tests, she confirmed that her share, under her insurance plan, would be $359—and paid it. Yet weeks later, she was billed an additional $1,677.51. This experience reflects a troubling pattern: while the No Surprises Act prevents certain types of surprise billing, it doesn’t cover every scenario where a patient is blindsided by costs.
Why It Matters to Air Ambulance Patients
This issue becomes even more complex in the air ambulance industry, where costs often reach tens of thousands of dollars. While the No Surprises Act has helped reduce out-of-network billing for emergency air ambulance services in some cases, it hasn’t closed all the gaps. Patients transported by air, often in life-or-death scenarios, have little time to verify network status or obtain estimates. If their insurance only partially covers the service—or if the provider is out-of-network—they may still face large unexpected bills.
Patients Caught in a Billing Maze
Another Massachusetts resident discovered the real cost of care when she dug into the master price list posted by her hospital. She learned that the negotiated insurance rate for her procedure was actually lower than what she had paid. Even after filing a formal complaint with CMS, she received a curt reply stating that her situation didn’t fall under the Act’s protections.
In the next part of this write-up, we’ll explore more real-life stories, including how surprise medical bills are surfacing even two years after treatment and how the air ambulance industry remains entangled in this financial uncertainty.
