June 30, 2023 - Introduced by Representatives Brooks, Rozar, Allen, Bodden, Brandtjen, Dittrich, Donovan, Duchow, Goeben, Green, Gundrum, Gustafson, Macco, Rettinger, Schraa, Shankland, Sortwell and Wichgers, cosponsored by Senators Felzkowski, Bradley, Hutton, Knodl, Larson, Nass, Stroebel and Wimberger. Referred to Committee on Health, Aging and Long-Term Care.
AB338,,22An Act to create 50.40 of the statutes; relating to: price transparency in hospitals and providing a penalty. AB338,,33Analysis by the Legislative Reference Bureau 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. The bill also requires DHS to maintain a publicly available list of hospitals that have been found to have violated any of the price transparency requirements specified in the bill.