Guardian Flight, LLC v. Health Care Service Corporation

There is a pending cert petition in this case; all relevant Supreme Court filings can be found here.

Why this Matters

The plaintiffs, air ambulance providers, sued a health insurer following the resolution of the No Surprises Act’s arbitration process—a process used to resolve payment disputes for surprise out-of-network bills between payers and out-of-network health care providers. The plaintiffs assert that the insurer failed to pay the providers in a timely manner in violation of the No Surprises Act and the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.  The plaintiffs appealed the district court’s ruling that they cannot challenge this payment delay in court.

Potential Impact

Burdensome and costly litigation could frustrate the intent of an efficient arbitration process to swiftly resolve disputes under the No Surprises Act.