No Surprises Act applicable for preventive care in an in-network practice located within an in-network hospital?

Hi, all. I'm 47 & live in Kansas. I wrote about this last week but did not receive any responses. Since then, I've received more information from Aetna, from which I have a silver plan thru the Marketplace. (I've already met my out-of-pocket max for the year.)

I had a WWE with an in-network provider whose in-network practice is located within an in-network hospital. During the exam, I had a preventive PAP. This was my 1st PAP in over 3 years. The practice sent the specimen to the lab that's located within the in-network hospital. It came back negative. Aetna confirmed it was coded as preventive.

Aetna covered (in-full) the exam, the specimen collection, & the hospital facility fee. They did not cover the PAP interpretation fee. After a lot of runaround with customer service (multiple phone calls & messages), Aetna finally explained that even though the interpretation of my PAP was part of a covered preventive service, the doctor who performed the interpretation within the lab is out-of-network.

I could not have known that the person interpreting the results in the lab of an in-network hospital was not himself in-network. So, I'm wondering, is this the kind of situation in which the No Surprises Act applies?

Thank you for your help!

submitted by /u/Emergency_Bet_1144
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