Bill Text: PA SB463 | 2009-2010 | Regular Session | Introduced

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Bill Title: Providing for inpatient diagnostic-related group charge reporting.

Spectrum: Moderate Partisan Bill (Republican 8-1)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2009-03-04 - Referred to PUBLIC HEALTH AND WELFARE [SB463 Detail]

Download: Pennsylvania-2009-SB463-Introduced.html

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PRINTER'S NO. 572
THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF PENNSYLVANIA
SENATE BILL
No. 463 Session of2009
INTRODUCED BY BROWNE, ALLOWAY, BAKER, GORDNER, WOZNIAK, ERICKSON, VANCE, EARLL AND RAFFERTY, MARCH 4, 2009
REFERRED TO PUBLIC HEALTH AND WELFARE, MARCH 4, 2009
AN ACT
Amending the act of July 8, 1986 (P.L.408, No.89), entitled, as
reenacted, "An act providing for the creation of the Health
Care Cost Containment Council, for its powers and duties, for
health care cost containment through the collection and
dissemination of data, for public accountability of health
care costs and for health care for the indigent; and making
an appropriation," providing for inpatient diagnostic-related
group charge reporting.
The General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
hereby enacts as follows:
Section 1. The act of July 8, 1986 (P.L.408, No.89), known
as the Health Care Cost Containment Act, reenacted and amended
July 17, 2003 (P.L.31, No.14), is amended by adding a section to
read:
Section 1.1. Inpatient diagnostic-related group charge
reporting.
(a) Report.--A health care facility shall report annually to
the Department of Health the charges for the 25 most common
inpatient diagnostic-related groups for which there are at least
ten cases rendered by the health care facility during the 12
months preceding the report.
(b) Website.--The Department of Health shall make the charge
reports required under subsection (a) available on its website.
The charge reports shall include disclaimers regarding factors,
including case severity ratings and individual patient
variations, which may affect actual charges to a patient for
services rendered. Upon request, the department shall provide
the charge reports by first class mail.
(c) Regulations.--The Department of Health shall promulgate
regulations to provide for the reporting of charges by health
care facilities. The regulations shall include all of the
following:
(1) The method for health care facilities to report
charges to the department.
(2) Standards that provide for the validity and
comparability of charge reports.
(3) The format for making charge reports available to
the public.
(d) Definitions.--As used in this section, the following
words and phrases shall have the meanings given to them in this
subsection:
"Charge." The amount that a health care facility would
expect to charge for an inpatient diagnostic-related group. A
charge shall be the median charge for all cases of the
diagnostic-related group occurring in the 12 months preceding
the report.
Section 2. This act shall take effect in 60 days.
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