Despite their best efforts, UW Medicine has not yet been able to reach fair and sustainable agreements with Aetna that ensure continued access to care and are in the best interests of patients. Effective June 1, 2025, UW Medicine’s contracts with Aetna for Medicare Advantage and Commercial services have expired and we are now out of network with Aetna. Learn more about what this means for you and what you should do next.
Balancing Billing Protection Act and No Surprise Act
Effective 1/1/2020 Washington state implemented the Balance Billing Protection Act (BBPA) to offer protection from surprise medical bills. Effective 1/1/2022, the Federal No Surprises Act ("FNSA"), applies a broader scope of plans and services than Washington's BBPA. Combined they offer transparency and disclosure for individuals seeking medical services.
Click here to learn more about your right to receive a Good Faith Estimate. Under the law, health care providers must give patients who don’t have insurance or who are not using insurance an estimate of the bill for the health care items and services they are about to receive. A Good Faith Estimate provides transparency for the total expected cost when scheduling or upon request.
Balance Billing (also referred to as surprise billing) occurs when an out-of-network provider bills the patient for the difference between the provider's charge and the insurance company's allowed amount.
- For disclosure, healthcare facilities and providers are required to provide a list of the commercial health insurer provider networks in which they participate. Click here to see the networks' list for Valley Medical Center, Harborview Medical Center, UW Medical Center and UW Physicians. Click here to learn more about your rights and protections. To learn more about your rights and protections in:
- Surprise billing protections apply to all state-regulated health plans, state and school employee benefit plans and self-funded group health plans. Some self-funded group health plans provide greater protections to their members under our state law. These plans have notified the Washington Office of Insurance Commissioner (OIC) that they want to offer these additional protections to their enrollees.
- If you have any questions regarding your statement and balance billing, contact Patient Accounts at 425-690-3578, Option 5 or 1-855-826-1540.