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House Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
House of Representatives
Session of 2023 - 2024
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | May 6, 2024 10:01 AM |
|---|---|
| From: | Representative Tarik Khan and Rep. David H. Rowe, Rep. Benjamin V. Sanchez, Rep. Kathleen C. Tomlinson, Rep. Jim Prokopiak, Rep. Dawn W. Keefer |
| To: | All House members |
| Subject: | Hospital Price Transparency and Prohibition on Certain Collection Actions |
| In the near future, we will introduce legislation to provide state-level oversight based on current federal requirements from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) regarding prices charged to patients by hospitals. Since 2021, hospitals have been required to publicly post standard charges and negotiated rates for the common health services and procedures. Price transparency requirements are intended to enable patients to compare prices and promote competition in the health care markets, and to help researchers study prices and competition in the health industry. While well intended, studies have shown these CMS requirements fall short. Too often, there are inconsistencies in data quality, a lack of clarity on what services prices refer to, and insufficient information to interpret prices. Our bill will require hospitals to maintain a publicly available list of all standard charges for all hospital items or services. Hospitals will be required to display their lists free of charge in a prominent location (or link) on the home page of their publicly accessible website. Our bill will also prohibit collection actions of debt for non-compliant hospitals and from reporting the individual’s case to a consumer reporting agency. These provisions are not meant to allow patients to avoid paying for hospitals services. However, patients should not be subject to collection and reporting actions and if a hospital fails to abide by price transparency rules. Please join us in co-sponsoring this important piece of legislation. |
Introduced as HB2339