Short answer: Under the No Surprises Act, if you are uninsured or choose to pay yourself, providers must give you a written good-faith estimate of expected charges before scheduled care. If the final bill is at least $400 more than the estimate, you can dispute it.
The federal No Surprises Act requires health care providers and facilities to give uninsured and self-pay patients a good-faith estimate of expected charges for scheduled, non-emergency items and services. You are entitled to the estimate when care is scheduled at least three business days in advance, or on request, and a self-pay patient can be someone who has insurance but chooses not to use it for that service.
If your final bill is at least $400 more than the good-faith estimate for a given provider, you have the right to start a patient-provider dispute resolution process. You generally have 120 days from receiving the bill to file, and while the dispute is pending the provider should not send the disputed amount to collections.
Ask for your good-faith estimate in writing before any scheduled service, keep it, and compare it to the final bill. The separate surprise-billing protections of the law also shield insured patients from most balance bills for emergency care and for out-of-network providers at in-network facilities.