CMS Seeks Feedback on the No Surprises Act Consumer Page
By Denise Johnson, LCSW-C,
NASW Senior Practice Associate for Clinical Social Work
The No Surprises Act seeks to protect patients from surprise medical bills. Clinical social workers and other health care provider types must provide a Good Faith Estimate of expected charges for items and services to individuals who are uninsured or self-pay.
To support patients in making more informed decisions about their healthcare, Coforma, an independent third-party design agency, is working with the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to revise guidance to consumers about the No Surprises Act and create tools to help people understand their medical bills. Coforma is open to various patient center perspectives and has invited the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) to provide feedback on the No Surprises Act Consumer Page.
The agency is looking for feedback on three separate projects on the following topics:
- a new patient-facing website that explains the No Surprises Act and directs people to helpful tools.
- a screening tool to help direct people to resources to navigate their medical billing/insurance situation.
- revisions to the current complaint forms on the CMS No Surprises website.
NASW will provide comments on the above topic areas and invite members to review these topics to give feedback. Review sessions will occur between April 17 to May 16, 2023. Each topic will take approximately 45-60 minutes to complete. To participate, please visit this scheduling link to find a time or times to sign up.
Thank you in advance for taking the time to provide feedback on this important project.