85R8894 LED-F
By: Collier H.B. No. 2080
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to disclosures regarding the provision of laboratory
services in certain health care facilities.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 324.101(a), Health and Safety Code, is
amended to read as follows:
(a) Each facility shall develop, implement, and enforce
written policies for the billing of facility health care services
and supplies. The policies must address:
(1) any discounting of facility charges to an
uninsured consumer, subject to Chapter 552, Insurance Code;
(2) any discounting of facility charges provided to a
financially or medically indigent consumer who qualifies for
indigent services based on a sliding fee scale or a written charity
care policy established by the facility and the documented income
and other resources of the consumer;
(3) the providing of an itemized statement required by
Subsection (e);
(4) whether interest will be applied to any billed
service not covered by a third-party payor and the rate of any
interest charged;
(5) the procedure for handling complaints;
(6) the providing of a conspicuous written disclosure
to a consumer at the time the consumer is first admitted to the
facility or first receives services at the facility that:
(A) provides confirmation whether the facility
is a participating provider under the consumer's third-party payor
coverage on the date services are to be rendered based on the
information received from the consumer at the time the confirmation
is provided;
(B) informs the consumer [consumers] that a
facility-based physician who may provide services to the consumer
while the consumer is in the facility may not be a participating
provider with the same third-party payors as the facility;
(C) informs the consumer [consumers] that the
consumer may receive a bill for medical services from a
facility-based physician for the amount unpaid by the consumer's
health benefit plan;
(D) informs the consumer [consumers] that the
consumer may request a listing of facility-based physicians who
have been granted medical staff privileges to provide medical
services at the facility; [and]
(E) informs the consumer [consumers] that the
consumer may request information from a facility-based physician on
whether the physician has a contract with the consumer's health
benefit plan and under what circumstances the consumer may be
responsible for payment of any amounts not paid by the consumer's
health benefit plan;
(F) informs the consumer that laboratory
services related to the consumer's facility admission, stay, or
services may be provided by a laboratory that may not be a
participating provider with the same third-party payors as the
facility; and
(G) informs the consumer that the consumer may
request from the facility a list of the names and contact
information of the laboratories that typically provide laboratory
services for the facility;
(7) the requirement that a facility provide a list, on
request, to a consumer to be admitted to, or who is expected to
receive services from, the facility, that contains the name and
contact information for each facility-based physician or
facility-based physician group that has been granted medical staff
privileges to provide medical services at the facility; and
(8) if the facility operates a website that includes a
listing of physicians who have been granted medical staff
privileges to provide medical services at the facility, the posting
on the facility's website of a list that contains the name and
contact information for each facility-based physician or
facility-based physician group that has been granted medical staff
privileges to provide medical services at the facility and the
updating of the list in any calendar quarter in which there are any
changes to the list.
SECTION 2. The changes in law made by this Act apply only to
a disclosure provided to a consumer by a health care facility on or
after the effective date of this Act.
SECTION 3. This Act takes effect September 1, 2017.