BREAKING NEWS

HHS Announces New Air Ambulance Reporting Requirements

On September 16, 2021, the Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”), in conjunction with the Department of Labor, Internal Revenue Service, Department of the Treasury, and the Office of Personnel Management, issued the second in a series of proposed rules related to the No Surprises Act. The No Surprises Act, which goes into effect on January 1, 2022, aims to protect patients from “surprise” medical bills, particularly air ambulance bills and requires certain data reporting by air ambulance services.

It is likely that air ambulance services will find some of the reporting requirements to be controversial. We urge all affected entities to review the Proposed Rule carefully and submit comments before the October 18, 2021, comment deadline.

The new Proposed Rule focuses on data reporting by air ambulance services, along with rules regarding enforcement of the new reporting requirements.

Reporting Details

Air ambulance services will need to report data to HHS and the Department of Transportation. HHS will require air ambulance services to report data from calendar years 2022 and 2023. Data from 2022 would be due by March 31, 2023, and data from 2023 would be due by March 30, 2024. This reporting aims to enable HHS and DOT to assess the competitiveness of the air ambulance market as well as the costs associated with air ambulance transports. Data that air ambulance services will need to report include but are not limited to:

Corporate information regarding the air ambulance entity;
Information regarding the location of all bases as well as aircraft and staffing at each base;
Responses and transports per aircraft;
Information regarding insurance contracts in which the air ambulance service participates;
Air ambulance subscription or membership programs;
Costs of labor, facilities, vehicles, equipment, vendors, and overhead;
Revenue information, including by payor type, as well as revenue from sources such as contracts and ancillary services
Data on each individual air ambulance transport, including date of services, billed HCPCS codes, origin and destination zip codes, flight duration, and more

HHS Enforcement Actions

The Proposed Rule creates a mechanism for HHS to investigate possible violations of the reporting requirement. Additionally, if HHS determined that the air ambulance service failed to report the required data, the air ambulance service could be subject to civil money penalties up to $10,000 per violation.

You can find a link to the Proposed Rule HERE. Comments on the Proposed Rule are due no later than October 18, 2021.

The Proposed Rule will require air ambulance services to take a more detailed and granular look at their costs and to be able to break down key operational data into specific reporting parameters being required by the Federal government.

We’ll be Covering This Proposed Rule and Much More

Oct. 19-20 IN PERSON – Hershey, PA