The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 (also known as the “No Surprises Act”) is a federal law that went into effect January 1st, 2022 intended to protect consumers from “surprise” health bills. Many of its requirements are not applicable to Headway and its providers, as an exclusively in-network platform with no inpatient health care facility. However, it does require providers to update directory data on a regular basis, or otherwise be suppressed from the directory.
What this means for our providers
We will be periodically asking our providers to confirm their Headway profile data, so that both the Headway platform and the directories of insurance companies they’re in network with through Headway can be as up-to-date as possible. Providers will receive communications requesting confirmation that their information is still accurate.
This includes crucial fields that affect patient experience, such as practice address and whether they are accepting new clients. We’ve sought to make this process as easy as possible for our providers, so responding to these requests can be as simple as pressing one button confirming that information is still correct.
Providers that do not respond in the required timeframe will be hidden from Headway’s search function and will be unable to utilize the platform until they do so. We appreciate our providers’ cooperation in helping us keep our directory up-to-date.
How this impacts claim success
Changes to some of the required fields may have an impact on claims success if we submit claims before insurance companies have updated their directory. For this reason, Headway will withhold claims for a short period of time to allow insurance companies to make these crucial updates and ensure the clean processing of claims. This should take approximately 30 days. We understand that this has an impact on clients and appreciate our users’ patience as we work to provide the most seamless claims experience possible.