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Publication
Merger law reform in Australia: What next after the Exposure Draft?
As expected, the Australian Commonwealth Treasury released an exposure draft for the proposed new Australian merger regime on 24 July 2024.
United States | Publication | December 2023
The US Departments of Health and Human Services, Treasury, and Labor (the Departments) reopened the Independent Dispute Resolution portal for all dispute types under the No Surprises Act (NSA) on December 15, 2023.
Following the August 2023 decisions by the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas (TMA III and TMA IV), the IDR portal was closed for new and existing batched disputes on August 3, 2023, and new or existing air ambulance disputes on August 24, 2023. While the portal reopened for certain disputes on October 6, 2023, it remained closed to batched disputes and disputes relating to air ambulance services.
The reopening came the same week that the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released its report on implementation of the NSA and the (IDR) process. The report highlighted a fractured regulatory enforcement framework, with compliance divided between the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the Department of Labor, and state officials depending on the health plan type. It also summarized the many problems both healthcare providers and payors have had with the IDR process, from inconsistent decisions to unanswered complaints to unpaid awards. While the Departments anticipated about 22,000 disputes in 2022, it received nearly 490,000 through June 2023, with only 38.6 percent closed. It is anticipated that the full reopening of the portal will add to the backlog.
The NSA was enacted as part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021, and took effect on January 1, 2022. Congress passed the NSA to protect patients covered by group and individual health plans from surprise medical bills. It created the IDR process to resolve payment disputes between payors and providers of emergency services.
The Departments also announced extensions of IDR deadlines for new batched disputes and new single disputes involving air ambulance services, resubmission of disputes determined by certified IDR entities to be improperly batched, and selection or reselection of a certified IDR entity. More specifically, the extensions include:
Please do not hesitate to reach out to our team at Norton Rose Fulbright with questions related to the Departments' guidance or any other No Surprises Act questions.
Publication
As expected, the Australian Commonwealth Treasury released an exposure draft for the proposed new Australian merger regime on 24 July 2024.
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