A federal agency is setting up a big new compensation disclosure and reporting program for individual health insurance agents and brokers.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), an arm of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, says producers may have to start giving customers compensation descriptions, along with commission schedules, as early as Dec. 27.
CMS has drafted producer comp disclosure regulations to implement part of the No Surprises Act. The provision creating the act was part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021. Then-President Donald Trump signed the act into law Dec. 27.
The No Surprises Act
The best-known parts of the No Surprises Act will affect the medical bills of patients who go to the hospital for emergency care, or who go to hospitals in their health plan provider networks for ordinary care and end up getting care from out-of-network providers.
Other parts will require hospitals to disclose their prices and set rules for billing for air ambulance services.
A health insurance broker comp transparency section, described in Section 202 of Division BB of CAA 2021, requires compensation disclosures for all commercial health insurance intermediaries, including group health brokers, health benefits consultants and benefit plan administrators.
Indirect comp includes:
