In December, USA Today reported on the American Medical Association’s and American Hospital Association’s lawsuit against the U.S. Departments of Health and Human Services, Labor, and Treasury over flawed regulations in implementing the No Surprises Act, noting that ASA is in agreement. “The rules are a powerful mechanism for large health insurance companies to avoid negotiating on contracts and, ultimately, to extract financial concessions from local community physician practices,” ASA stated. The piece was also featured in the Statesman Journal (Salem, Oregon), among other outlets.

Additionally, ASA President Randall M. Clark, MD, FASA, was quoted in a December Politico article, where he challenged the Interim Final Rule (IFR) implementing the No Surprises Act. “Being out of network is really the physicians’ only control over how their contracts look,” he said. “If the insurance companies can treat us the same whether we’re in network or out of network, there is no impetus on the part of the insurance companies to negotiate fair contracts.”

In January, Healio, Healthcare Finance News, Modern Healthcare, and HealthLeaders reported on the lawsuit filed by ASA, the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP), and the American College of Radiology (ACR) against the federal government over the IFR in the No Surprises Act, which argued that the IFR “creates a system that empowers profit-seeking insurance companies to strong-arm local community physician practices, narrow their provider networks and reduce access to care.”

Coverage on the lawsuit filed by the ASA, ACEP, and ACR continued into February in Radiology Business, Applied Radiology, and Medscape. “The IFR established by the administration will hit anesthesiology, radiology and emergency medicine hard across the country, especially in small, rural or marginalized communities,” said Dr. Clark in Applied Radiology.