Referred to the House Committee on Education and Workforce.
This bill requires hospitals to use a separate identification number when billing insurance for services provided at their off-site clinic locations, rather than billing as if the care happened at the main hospital. If hospitals do not include this identifier on their bills, insurance plans cannot pay the claim, and hospitals cannot charge the patient. This matters because hospitals often charge higher prices for care at off-site clinics by billing under the main hospital's name, costing patients and employers more money.
When hospitals buy up local doctor's offices and clinics, they often slap hospital-level prices on the same care you got before , sometimes doubling the bill. This bill would force hospitals to be honest about where your care actually happened, which could lower costs for the roughly 164 million Americans with employer-based insurance.