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