One year ago, the United States marked a turning point for health care cost transparency with a new law aimed at helping Americans avoid unnecessary, unexpected medical debt. As of Jan. 1, 2022, health care providers and insurers are no longer allowed to sideswipe privately insured people with bills for out-of-network services. Experts say the bipartisan No Surprises Act was a rare victory for patients and the public against exploitative health care costs, but that challenges remain. In 2019, Republicans and Democrats in Congress worked together to craft legislation that ultimately became the No Surprises Act. The  law protects people  in group and individual health insurance plans from receiving unexpected bills from out-of-network providers who cared for them at in-network facilities – a system already in place for Medicaid and Medicare patients. An independent dispute resolution process now allows insurance companies and providers to figure out coverage and costs after a patient h

  As more primary care providers integrate behavioral health services into their practice, EHR platforms must evolve to meet the needs of healthcare providers and their patients. The U.S. is suffering from a mental healthcare crisis. According to the   National Alliance on Mental Illness  (NAMI), one in five adults in the U.S. experience a mental health disorder each year, but less than half (47.2%) received treatment in 2021. These data points become even more devastating when you consider that suicide is the second leading cause of death among children age 10- to 14-years-old, with one in six kids age 6- to 17-years-old suffering from a mental health disorder every year. The silver lining here, if there is one, is that deep-rooted stigmas attached to behavioral healthcare are finally losing their crushing grip on our patient populations as more people openly discuss mental health issues. Another step in the right direction: two years after the pandemic resulted in alarming waves of s