Health Committee approves Khan’s hospital price transparency bill

Rep. Tarik Khan    June 12, 2024 | 3:39 PM

HARRISBURG, June 12 – Today, the House Health Committee approved legislation (H.B. 2339) authored by state Rep. Tarik Khan, D-Phila., which would make it so that patients are provided with cost estimates for care at hospitals before they receive it.

“Our bipartisan bill protects the public by ensuring hospitals are playing by the rules when it comes to being up front about costs to consumers. Most families in my community are paying thousands in out-of-pocket costs when they seek hospital care, and these are the ones that are already insured,” Khan said. “At the very least, Pennsylvanians should be able to know ahead of time what the costs are so they can plan ahead and shop around for care when possible. Our bill ensures hospitals follow federal guidelines for price transparency— which should be the bare minimum in our commonwealth.”

This bill would require hospitals to maintain a publicly available list of all standard charges for all hospital items or services. Hospitals would be required to display their lists free of charge in a prominent location (or link) on the home page of their publicly accessible website.

It also would provide state-level oversight based on current federal requirements from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services regarding prices charged to patients by hospitals.

Khan is joined by a bipartisan group of legislators in introducing H.B. 2339, including state Reps. David Rowe, R-Union/Juniata/Mifflin/Snyder; Ben Sanchez, D-Montgomery; Kathleen Tomlinson, R-Bucks; Jim Prokopiak, D-Bucks; and Dawn Keefer, R-York. 

The bill also would prohibit non-compliant hospitals from collecting medical debt from patients who received services when the hospital was non-compliant and from reporting the individual’s case to a consumer reporting agency. 

It now heads to the full House for consideration.

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