Radiology speaks up and CMS listens on key policy concern
The American College of Radiology recently met with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to voice its concern over a key policy issue, and it appears the agency listened.
On Dec. 15, the administration reopened the independent dispute-resolution portal to process all claims initiated under the No Surprises Act. This included all old and new batched disputes, along with single cases involving air ambulances.
The feds had originally indicated they would only give 20 business days to submit any claims held during the extended pause. But after ACR—alongside the American College of Emergency Physicians and the American Society of Anesthesiologists—protested this was too little time, the feds have relented.
“The departments [of Labor, Treasury and HHS] received feedback from disputing parties…that the previously announced extensions do not provide enough time to complete the IDR activities, given the significant backlog of batched and air ambulance disputes that were unable to be submitted during the suspension of those operations in the federal IDR portal,” CMS said in a Thursday announcement. “As such, on December 21, 2023, the departments announced a further extension of deadlines, giving parties additional time to complete certain IDR activities that were impacted by the temporary suspension of IDR operations....”
ACR, ACEP and the ASA all met with CMS this week to discuss this issue, the college said in a Dec. 21 update. With the change, providers now have an extension until March 14 to submit claims. The IDR pause came in response to a recent court ruling in the favor of the Texas Medical Association and other organizations.
“When the federal IDR portal reopened for single claim disputes in October, a 20 business-day extension was provided and was not enough time for stakeholders to submit disputes for claims that were on hold for more than two months,” ACR noted. “Batched claim disputes were on hold for twice as long and were initially held to the same 20 business-day extension, occurring during the winter holiday season. The college is pleased with the additional 40 business-day extension and thanks CMS for the swift action to allow more time.”
Read previous coverage of the latest NSA-related announcements in the links below.
Marty Stempniak has covered healthcare since 2012, with his byline appearing in the American Hospital Association's member magazine, Modern Healthcare and McKnight's. Prior to that, he wrote about village government and local business for his hometown newspaper in Oak Park, Illinois. He won a Peter Lisagor and Gold EXCEL awards in 2017 for his coverage of the opioid epidemic.