Guide

The one-page notice: office, website, and every estimate

Summary

The No Surprises Act requires you to post a notice of the right to a good-faith estimate prominently in your office, on your public website, and hand it to every uninsured or self-pay patient. Where you are subject to the balance-billing protections, you also post and give the one-page 'Your Rights and Protections Against Surprise Medical Bills' notice. Both live in three places: on-site, online, and in the patient's hands.

By Gale Editorial · Updated 2026-07-27. Every figure cited to a dated source. How we write.

Which NSA notices does a solo office actually owe?

A solo office practice generally owes one No Surprises Act notice for certain, and a second only in defined settings. The certain one is the notice telling uninsured and self-pay patients they have a right to a good-faith estimate; it must be posted and provided wherever you see cash-pay patients 1Ref 1Office of the Federal Register (2026).45 CFR Part 149 — Surprise Billing and Transparency Requirements.The operative rule text setting the disclosure and posting requirements — the good-faith-estimate notice displayed on-site, on a public website, and provided to uninsured and self-pay individuals, and the content elements the notices must contain.. The second — the one-page balance-billing disclosure — attaches only when you furnish services the balance-billing protections actually cover 2Ref 2Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (2026).No Surprise Billing.That CMS hosts the implementing guidance and model notices, that the balance-billing disclosure attaches to services the surprise-billing protections cover, and that the good-faith-estimate requirement serves uninsured and self-pay patients..

That split matters because the two notices are often described together as "the NSA notice" as if every practice owes both in the same way. They do not. Sorting which applies to your setting is the first step, and it is answered by what you bill and where, not by whether you have heard the phrase No Surprises Act for office practice. The rest of this page treats each notice on its own terms.

Where the good-faith-estimate notice must appear

The good-faith-estimate notice must appear in three places at once: displayed clearly and conspicuously at your office where you schedule appointments or take payment, posted on your public website if you have one, and given directly to each uninsured or self-pay individual 1Ref 1Office of the Federal Register (2026).45 CFR Part 149 — Surprise Billing and Transparency Requirements.The operative rule text setting the disclosure and posting requirements — the good-faith-estimate notice displayed on-site, on a public website, and provided to uninsured and self-pay individuals, and the content elements the notices must contain.. It informs them, in plain language, that they can receive a written estimate of expected charges before scheduled care.

Where	What goes there	When
On-site	The notice of the right to a good-faith estimate, conspicuously displayed	Standing, wherever scheduling or payment happens 1Ref 1Office of the Federal Register (2026).45 CFR Part 149 — Surprise Billing and Transparency Requirements.The operative rule text setting the disclosure and posting requirements — the good-faith-estimate notice displayed on-site, on a public website, and provided to uninsured and self-pay individuals, and the content elements the notices must contain.
Public website	The same notice, on a page a patient can find	Standing, if you have a site 1Ref 1Office of the Federal Register (2026).45 CFR Part 149 — Surprise Billing and Transparency Requirements.The operative rule text setting the disclosure and posting requirements — the good-faith-estimate notice displayed on-site, on a public website, and provided to uninsured and self-pay individuals, and the content elements the notices must contain.
To the patient	The notice itself, plus the estimate on request	No later than the request or at scheduling 1Ref 1Office of the Federal Register (2026).45 CFR Part 149 — Surprise Billing and Transparency Requirements.The operative rule text setting the disclosure and posting requirements — the good-faith-estimate notice displayed on-site, on a public website, and provided to uninsured and self-pay individuals, and the content elements the notices must contain.

The posting is not a substitute for the handout, and the handout is not a substitute for the posting — the rule expects all three. "Clearly and conspicuously" means where a patient will actually see it, not buried in a binder at the back office.

The one-page 'Your Rights' notice, and when it applies to you

The one-page 'Your Rights and Protections Against Surprise Medical Bills' notice is the balance-billing disclosure, and its posting duty attaches to providers and facilities that furnish items or services for which the surprise-billing protections apply — chiefly emergency care and care delivered at or through participating facilities 2Ref 2Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (2026).No Surprise Billing.That CMS hosts the implementing guidance and model notices, that the balance-billing disclosure attaches to services the surprise-billing protections cover, and that the good-faith-estimate requirement serves uninsured and self-pay patients.. A purely office-based solo clinician who never bills in those settings may not be subject to it; confirm your setting against the rule text rather than assuming either way 1Ref 1Office of the Federal Register (2026).45 CFR Part 149 — Surprise Billing and Transparency Requirements.The operative rule text setting the disclosure and posting requirements — the good-faith-estimate notice displayed on-site, on a public website, and provided to uninsured and self-pay individuals, and the content elements the notices must contain..

Where it does apply, it lives in the same three places as the good-faith-estimate notice: posted on-site, posted on your public website, and provided to the patient. This is the disclosure that pairs with the balance-billing ban and the notice-and-consent process for out-of-network billing — machinery built for surprise out-of-network charges, not for the ordinary self-pay estimate. If none of those situations describe your practice, the good-faith-estimate notice may be the only one you owe.

Getting the wording right

Use the federal model notice rather than drafting your own. CMS publishes standardized model language for both the good-faith-estimate notice and the one-page surprise-billing disclosure, and using the model is the reliable path to meeting the content requirement 2Ref 2Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (2026).No Surprise Billing.That CMS hosts the implementing guidance and model notices, that the balance-billing disclosure attaches to services the surprise-billing protections cover, and that the good-faith-estimate requirement serves uninsured and self-pay patients.. Rewriting the language in your own words invites a content gap the rule would treat as noncompliance 1Ref 1Office of the Federal Register (2026).45 CFR Part 149 — Surprise Billing and Transparency Requirements.The operative rule text setting the disclosure and posting requirements — the good-faith-estimate notice displayed on-site, on a public website, and provided to uninsured and self-pay individuals, and the content elements the notices must contain..

Start from the model, then only adjust format. Fill in your practice name and contact path; leave the required elements intact.
Translate and make it accessible, don't paraphrase. Offering the notice in another language or an accessible format meets patients where they are; rephrasing away required content does not.
Match the notice to the service. A practice with a recurring-care good-faith estimate should make sure the estimate and its notice reflect the course of care, not a single session, so the posted right matches what patients actually receive.

Make posting a standing policy, not a one-time task

Because these notices are static until the rules change, the failure mode is not drafting them once but letting them fall down or go stale. Fold a posting check into your written policies: confirm the office copy is up and legible, the website page is live and findable, and the handout is in the intake packet. That recurring check is exactly the policies-and-procedures element a small-practice compliance program is built on 3Ref 3HHS Office of Inspector General (2023).General Compliance Program Guidance.That a written policies-and-procedures element with recurring checks is a core part of an effective compliance program scaled to a small practice — the frame for making notice-posting a standing policy rather than a one-time task..

Keep light evidence that you did the check — a dated line in your policy log is enough for a practice of one. The point is not paperwork for its own sake; it is that when a patient or a reviewer asks where your notice is, "posted here, here, and in the packet, last verified on this date" is a complete answer. A compliance program scaled to a solo practice is mostly this: a short list of recurring checks you actually run.

Common questions

Yes. If your practice ever serves uninsured or self-pay patients, the good-faith-estimate notice applies, and the simplest compliant approach is to post it as a standing fixture rather than deciding case by case. The rule ties the obligation to serving cash-pay patients at all, not to a threshold volume of them, so a permanent posting removes the judgment call entirely.

The website posting requirement applies only if you have a public website. Without one, that specific channel does not attach, but you still owe the on-site posting where you schedule or take payment and the direct handout to each uninsured or self-pay patient. The absence of a website narrows where the notice must appear; it does not excuse the other two placements.

Use the CMS model language rather than composing your own. The model exists precisely so a solo practice does not have to guess at the required content, and paraphrasing risks dropping an element the rule expects. You may reformat for your layout, add your practice details, and translate for accessibility, but keep the substantive language of the model notice intact.

Often it does not. The one-page 'Your Rights' disclosure attaches to providers furnishing services the balance-billing protections cover — largely emergency care and care at participating facilities. A therapist billing self-pay from a private office may fall outside that. Confirm your specific setting against the regulation rather than assuming, because the answer turns on where and how you bill, not your discipline.

The notices themselves are static until the federal rules change, so there is no routine rewrite cycle. What needs a recurring check is whether they are still up and current: the office copy present and legible, the website page live, and the handout stocked. Treat it as a periodic housekeeping item in your policy log rather than a substantive redraft each year.

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References

1.Office of the Federal Register (2026). 45 CFR Part 149 — Surprise Billing and Transparency Requirements. eCFR. link ✓The operative rule text setting the disclosure and posting requirements — the good-faith-estimate notice displayed on-site, on a public website, and provided to uninsured and self-pay individuals, and the content elements the notices must contain.
2.Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (2026). No Surprise Billing. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). link ✓That CMS hosts the implementing guidance and model notices, that the balance-billing disclosure attaches to services the surprise-billing protections cover, and that the good-faith-estimate requirement serves uninsured and self-pay patients.
3.HHS Office of Inspector General (2023). General Compliance Program Guidance. HHS Office of Inspector General (OIG). link ✓That a written policies-and-procedures element with recurring checks is a core part of an effective compliance program scaled to a small practice — the frame for making notice-posting a standing policy rather than a one-time task.

https://www.gale.care/for-providers/nsa-public-disclosures-posting · 3 sources. Competitor details are cited to dated public sources and maintained as they change; figures are estimates, not commitments. Synthetic demonstration.

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