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At least one major source of tension remains unresolved regarding the new law banning surprise medical bills: what it looks like for patients to willingly waive their protections — or refuse to waive them. Why it matters: This could yet again pit providers' rights against their patients'. Driving the news: The Biden administration last week released the first rule implementing the surprise billing law passed late last year, which will take effect in January. (Owens, 7/6)

Nearly one in five newborn hospitalizations or childbirth deliveries have at least one surprise medical bill, especially if cesarean delivery or neonatal intensive care services are provided, according to JAMA brief out Friday. Why it matters: Childbirth hospitalizations — which often out-of-network — are the most frequent sources of surprise bills in the U.S. and new federal protections addressing this issue could benefit many families, the analysis said. (Fernandez, 7/6)

The Biden administration began implementing a ban on surprise billing practices on Thursday, a step toward putting an end to unexpected charges to patients for costly healthcare services such as air ambulance rides. “This latest guidance reinforces the law’s important protections for patients facing medical emergencies, including situations where notice and consent procedures would not apply so that patients don’t become victims of a surprise bill at their most vulnerable moments,” said the lobbying group Coalition Against Surprise Medical Billing, which represents major healthcare trade groups, such as America’s Health Insurance Plans and the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association. (Morrison, 7/4)

There are few situations where you're more vulnerable than when you're being transported to an emergency room in an ambulance. The choice of having a sudden collapse or unexpected accident isn't a choice at all; it's a quirk of circumstance that requires immediate attention, and ambulatory services have an obligation to get a patient to a medical facility as fast as possible. (Mukherjee, 7/5)

CMS unveiled July 2 the first in a series of rules aimed at shielding patients from surprise billing. The interim final rule addresses several provisions in the No Surprises Act passed by Congress last year. Most provisions outlined in the proposed rule will not take effect until Jan. 1, 2022. (Paavola, 7/5)

KHN: ‘An Arm And A Leg’: Tips For Fighting Medical Bills From ProPublica’s Marshall Allen

Veteran health journalist Marshall Allen has been exposing health care grifters for years. Now, he’s written a book about how to fight them. Host Dan Weissmann spoke with Allen about some of the best tips from “Never Pay the First Bill: And Other Ways to Fight the Health Care System and Win.” Allen used the skills he learned while doing health care deep dives for ProPublica to write the book, which he describes as a field guide to navigating the health system. (Weissmann, 7/6)

If President Joe Biden’s last big science project was a moonshot, his new one has goals that are light years further. The proposed Advanced Research Projects Agency would deliver breakthrough treatments for cancer, Alzheimer’s, diabetes and other diseases and reshape the government’s medical research efforts, by adding a nimble new agency modeled on the Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, which laid the groundwork for the internet. (Owermohle, 7/5)