HB 490-FN – AS INTRODUCED
2007 SESSION
01/04
HOUSE BILL 490-FN
COMMITTEE: Health, Human Services and Elderly Affairs
This bill requires hospitals to compile a list of charges for common services and procedures and to file this list annually with the department of health and human services. The bill grants rulemaking authority to the commissioner of the department of health and human services for the purposes of the bill.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Explanation: Matter added to current law appears in bold italics.
Matter removed from current law appears [in brackets and struckthrough.]
Matter which is either (a) all new or (b) repealed and reenacted appears in regular type.
07-0546
01/04
STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE
In the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand Seven
AN ACT requiring hospitals to make the price of certain common procedures available to the public.
Be it Enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court convened:
1 New Section; Hospitals; List of Charges for Common Services and Procedures. Amend RSA 151 by inserting after section 12-a the following new section:
151:12-b List of Charges for Common Services and Procedures. Each hospital licensed pursuant to this chapter shall compile a list of the charges for 25 services or procedures commonly charged to patients. Beginning January 1, 2008, each hospital shall make this list available to any person upon request. Each hospital shall file this list annually with the department of health and human services in a form prescribed by the department. The commissioner of the department of health and human services shall adopt rules, pursuant to RSA 541-A, relative to the form and content of the forms required under this section and the manner of filing such list of charges with the department.
2 Effective Date. This act shall take effect 60 days after its passage.
LBAO
07-0546
01/24/07
HB 490-FN - FISCAL NOTE
AN ACT requiring hospitals to make the price of certain common procedures available to the public.
FISCAL IMPACT:
The Department of Health and Human Services states this bill may increase state expenditures by an indeterminable amount in FY 2007 and each year thereafter. This bill will have no fiscal impact on state, county, and local revenue, or county and local expenditures.
METHODOLOGY:
The Department of Health and Human Services states this bill requires licensed hospitals to compile a list of charges for the 25 most commonly charged services to be filed annually with the Department, and requires hospitals to make this list available to the public beginning on January 1, 2008. The bill also requires the Department to adopt rules relative to the form and content of the forms required under the bill, as well as the manner of filing the list with the Department. Pursuant to RSA 126:25, the Department already receives charge data by discharge annually from acute care hospitals and specialty hospitals with an average length of stay less than thirty days. The Department states receiving and retaining this additional data from hospitals would require administrative effort at an indeterminable cost. The development of the required reporting form, as well as the administrative effort to promulgate rules would have a potential cost to the Department along with any costs associated with the Department’s responses to requests for information and following up on any providers who fail to report. The exact fiscal impact is indeterminable at this time.