Price transparency in hospitals and providing a penalty. This bill creates several requirements for hospitals to provide cost information
for certain items and services provided by the hospital. Under the bill, each hospital
must make publicly available a digital file in a machine-readable format that
contains a list of standard charges for certain items and services provided by the
hospital and a consumer-friendly list of standard charges for certain shoppable
services. “Standard charge” is defined to mean the regular rate established by the
hospital for an item or service provided to a specific group of paying patients and
includes certain price information, including the gross charge, the payor-specific
negotiated charge, and the discounted cash price. “Shoppable service” is defined to
mean a service that may be scheduled by a health care consumer in advance. If the
Department of Health Services determines that a hospital is not in compliance with
any of the price transparency requirements specified in the bill, the bill requires DHS
to take certain actions, including providing a written notice to the hospital,
requesting a corrective action plan from the hospital, or imposing a penalty. The bill
establishes escalating penalties for violations of the hospital price transparency
requirements specified in the bill based on the hospital’s bed count, from $600 for
each day in which a hospital with 30 beds or fewer violates the hospital price
transparency requirements under the bill up to $10,000 for each day in which a
hospital with greater than 550 beds violates the hospital price transparency
requirements under the bill.