Surprise bills for colonoscopies following a stool-based screening test with positive results are now prohibited, according to Health Day. 

New York City-based insurance company Oscar Health introduced a price transparency tool that allows members to compare specific expenses for procedures at ASCs, hospitals and other settings.

Tri-State Specialists in Sioux City, Iowa, will pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to resolve billing fraud allegations.

Cigna is one of the oldest and largest payers in the U.S. with 20.4 million members. 

The Center for Pain Management remains out of network with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota after the payer terminated its contract over safety concerns in October.

ASC revenue cycle management company National Medical Billing Services acquired mdStrategies, a medical coding company focused on ASCs.

Aetna is one of the country's largest health insurers, with 22.1 million members. 

Anita Louise Jackson, MD, was indicted Jan. 5 for allegedly spearheading a multimillion-dollar fraud scheme.

UnitedHealthcare is the largest health insurance company by membership with 70 million members. 

An Indiana law going into effect Jan. 1 hopes to reduce surprise billing, WNDU reported Dec. 28.

Beverly Hills, Calif.-based Center for Advanced Facial Plastic Surgery will accept cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin starting in January, the center said Dec. 20.

Whistleblowers stand to receive a portion of the proceeds from a settlement or financial recovery, which can be hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars.

A federal jury on Dec. 16 found a former physician and his company guilty of a scheme to defraud private insurers and the Tricare program by submitting about $355 million in false claims.

The owner of two Montana-based vascular surgery centers agreed to pay millions to resolve allegations that he performed and billed for medically unnecessary procedures.

In November, CMS updated hospital price transparency regulation for hospitals with more than 30 beds.

A Mississippi physician and his practice have agreed to pay $375,000 to resolve allegations of improperly billing Medicare in violation of the False Claims Act, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Mississippi said Dec. 13.

The owner of an Atlanta-based medical group and his practice will pay millions to resolve kickback allegations brought by a former employed physician, according to a Dec. 8 Justice Department statement.

Most physicians have difficulty estimating out-of-pocket medication expenses even when they have access to patients' drug and insurance information, according to a study published in November in JAMA Network Open.

A partially physician-owned hospital in Flower Mound, Texas, will pay millions to resolve allegations that it violated Stark Law, and the physician partner who blew the whistle will receive $3 million, according to a Dec. 2 Justice Department news release.

The American Society of Anesthesiologists condemned BlueCross BlueShield of North Carolina's alleged abuse of the No Surprises Act to coerce clinicians and practices into network agreements in a Nov. 22 statement shared with Becker's.