SB 185-FN – AS AMENDED BY THE HOUSE
29Apr2009… 1376h
03Jun2009… 1607h
2009 SESSION
10/03
SENATE BILL 185-FN
AN ACT relative to payment for medical services to state prisoners.
SPONSORS: Sen. D'Allesandro, Dist 20
COMMITTEE: Health and Human Services
This bill clarifies the payment by the department of corrections to health care facilities and hospitals for medical services for state prisoners.
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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Matter which is either (a) all new or (b) repealed and reenacted appears in regular type.
29Apr2009… 1376h
03Jun2009… 1607h
09-1020
10/03
STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE
In the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand Nine
AN ACT relative to payment for medical services to state prisoners.
Be it Enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court convened:
1 Medical Services for State Prisoners. Amend RSA 623-C:2, I and II to read as follows:
I.(a) Except as provided in subparagraphs (b) through [(f), no hospital or emergency room shall charge the department of corrections or its agent more than] (d), the department of corrections or its agent shall pay health care facilities and hospitals 110 percent of the Medicare allowable rate for inpatient, outpatient, or emergency room care provided for prisoners in state correctional facilities. In this chapter, health care facilities mean ambulatory and specialty-medical services centers licensed under RSA 151, and shall include but not be limited to surgical, rehabilitation, long term, oncology, and dialysis centers, but shall not include physician practices and community health care clinics.
(b) Allowances provided by hospitals shall qualify as community benefits under RSA 7:32-d, III(b).
(c) [Hospitals reported by the department of health and human services as having a negative operating margin in the most recent year for which hospital-audited financial data is available shall charge no more than 125 percent of the medicare rate.
(d) ] The commissioner of the department of corrections may waive the application of subparagraph (a) if the commissioner determines such action is necessary to ensure prisoner access to medically necessary care.
[(e)] (d) The commissioner of the department of corrections may waive the application of subparagraph (a) if the commissioner determines such action to be necessary for the efficient operations of the state correctional facility.
[(f) Nothing in this paragraph shall require a hospital to admit any person. ]
II. Nothing in this section shall preclude the commissioner of the department of corrections [shall have] from having the discretion to negotiate and execute medical service rate agreements with hospitals or [emergency rooms] health care facilities for the provision of medical services to state prisoners at the lowest rate possible, or utilizing rates in existing agreements.
2 Effective Date. This act shall take effect 60 days after its passage.
LBAO
09-1020
Revised 02/20/09
SB 185 FISCAL NOTE
AN ACT relative to rates and charges for medical services to state prisoners.
FISCAL IMPACT:
The Department of Corrections states this bill will decrease state expenditures by an indeterminable amount in FY 2009 and each year thereafter. There will be no fiscal impact on state, county, and local revenue or county and local expenditures.
METHODOLOGY:
The Department of Corrections states this bill limits the fees and rates health care facilities and hospitals may charge the Department for services for state prisoners. The Department states this bill will reduce state expenditures by an indeterminable amount in FY 2009 and each year thereafter. However, because the medical services consumed by the Department vary widely from year to year, the exact fiscal impact cannot be determined.