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A Senate bill would provide patients with more up-front information about hospital charges and would fine hospital CEOs whose facilities do not report their prices.
The Senate Health Committee on Wednesday approved Senate bill 316, called Lower Healthcare Costs.
“This bill is an attempt to shine a light on every part of the health care system to begin to see where the cost drivers truly exist and to start to tamp down on those costs,” said Sen. Amy Galey (R-Alamance), who is one of the bill’s sponsors.
The bill focuses on hospitals and other health facilities.
Under the bill, hospitals would be largely prohibited from charging what are known as facility fees. Those are charges that may be added to bills when patients go to a hospital-owned clinics.
Health care facilities would have to send patients itemized lists of charges before sending unpaid bills to collections.
Hospitals and ambulatory care facilities would be required to provide quarterly reports on the costs of common procedures. CEOs would face fines of up to $2,000 a day for failure to comply.
In cases where patients are not experiencing health emergencies, health care facilities would have to provide them with “good faith estimates” for each procedure. The final bills could not exceed the estimates by more than 5%.
A spokeswoman for the North Carolina Healthcare Association, which represents hospitals, said in an email that the organization is evaluating the bill and its potential impacts, and would communicate directly with senators.
Sen. Jim Burgin (R-Harnett), said greater price transparency will result in lower costs. People who don’t need emergency medical care will have time to compare prices, he said.
“You ought to know what it’s going to cost,” said Burgin, one of the bill sponsors. “You ought to know if you’re going to get a separate bill from the anesthesiologist, or the radiologist, or the lab, or anybody else.”