Monday, February 8, 2021
On January 1, 2021, Governor Charlie Baker signed an omnibus healthcare law entitled “An Act promoting a resilient health care system that puts patients first,” which is aimed at addressing pressing healthcare issues in Massachusetts, many of which have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The act addresses a wide variety of healthcare issues, such as surprise billing, advanced practitioner scope of practice, telehealth, mental health parity and healthcare accessibility. Governor Baker initially proposed several of these measures in late 2019 in “An Act to improve health care by investing in value.” While the January 2021 act incorporates many of the core concepts from the 2019 proposal, in some cases these concepts were substantially modified and new provisions (specifically, those related to addressing the COVID-19 pandemic) were introduced into the final version of the act. Key features of the act are summarized below.
OVERVIEW
On January 1, 2021, Governor Charlie Baker signed an omnibus healthcare law entitled “An Act promoting a resilient health care system that puts patients first,” which is aimed at addressing pressing healthcare issues in Massachusetts, many of which have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
IN DEPTH
The act addresses a wide variety of healthcare issues, such as surprise billing, advanced practitioner scope of practice, telehealth, mental health parity and healthcare accessibility. Governor Baker initially proposed several of these measures in late 2019 in “An Act to improve health care by investing in value.” While the January 2021 act incorporates many of the core concepts from the 2019 proposal, in some cases these concepts were substantially modified and new provisions (specifically, those related to addressing the COVID-19 pandemic) were introduced into the final version of the act. Key features of the act are summarized below.
Late on Sunday, December 27
th, after initially raising concerns about the pandemic relief measure that had overwhelmingly passed Congress days before, President Trump signed the measure into law, ending a long political stalemate and beginning the process of sending financial relief to American families and small businesses, further aiding the American economy. As with the CARES Act enacted in March, this bill, the “Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021,” passed the House and Senate overwhelmingly, on a bipartisan vote of 359-53 in the House, followed swiftly by a 92-6 vote in the Senate.
1 With an official price tag of approximately $900 billion, it is the second largest stimulus measure ever enacted by Congress.
Thursday, January 7, 2021
The recently enacted Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 (the “Act”) not only funds the government and provides further relief in regard to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, but it also adopted a number of new substantive laws. We summarize below two key categories of new substantive law contained in the Act: (1) the prohibition on surprise medical billing; and (2) requirements related to price transparency.
1. Prohibition of Surprise Billing
A. Prohibition
Effective January 1, 2022, patients will be protected from unexpected or “surprise” medical bills that could arise from (1) out-of-network emergency care (including certain ancillary services routinely available in an emergency department) provided at an out-of-network facility or at in-network facilities by out-of-network providers; and (2) out-of-network nonemergency care provided at in-network facilities without the patient’s informed consent. Many states have passed simi