New year, new laws: Here are 3 new Indiana laws taking effect in 2022

INDIANAPOLIS (Fort Wayne’s NBC and WTHR) — A new year means new laws for Indiana. Fort Wayne’s NBC affiliate station WTHR looked at three new laws set to impact Hoosiers in 2022. One will stop surprise medical billing. Another expands e-prescriptions. The third requires new internet policies for school districts.

Surprise medical billing

In October, 13 Investigates told you patients were still getting surprise bills due to balance billing. Starting Jan. 1, the state’s surprise billing law and the federal No Surprises Act will take effect.

The bill will require a “good faith estimate” for patients to review before getting care. Indiana patients should receive estimates five days before a procedure. It should include estimated in-network costs, out-of-network costs and a chance for a patient to approve or opt-out of a procedure.

The goal is to reduce the number of surprise medical bills patients get because of balance billing– when a patient is forced to pay for unexpected out-of-network costs.

E-prescriptions

A new e-prescriptions law also goes into effect in 2022. Many providers already moved from handwritten prescriptions to electronic ones. In part, because the law was supposed to go into effect in 2021.

The goal of the bill is to cut down on errors and limit fraud with paper prescriptions. Doctors can provide a written prescription in some circumstances, like if the power goes out. Waivers are also available.

School internet policies

Finally, in the new year, school districts and charter schools will be required to post their internet use policies online. A school’s policy should ban “sending, receiving, viewing or downloading” inappropriate material. It needs to also list penalties for violators.

Schools will also need to use hardware or software to block kids from accessing inappropriate content.

2022 also comes with some new tax laws and a handful of other laws.