Perhaps laws like these will let hospitals like Provena know what the government wants before it brings the hammer down. Following on the heels of New York, which passed a similar measure earlier this year, the state of California has passed a new law limiting how much the state's hospitals can charge uninsured, underinsured or self-pay patients. While California Healthcare Association guidelines already cap fees for families at 300 percent of the federal poverty line or below, activists contend that such guidelines are widely ignored. The law, which applies to patients earning less than 350 percent of the federal poverty level, forbids hospitals from charging such patients more than what government programs charge for medical care and also requires that hospitals inform disadvantaged patients of financial options such as public insurance and charity care. It also puts the brakes on aggressive collection practices, mandating that hospitals to give patients 150 days to negotiate before they send pending bills to collections.
To get more detail on California measure:
- read this Modern Healthcare article [1]
Links:
[1] http://www.modernhealthcare.com/news.cms?newsId=5662&potId=MN