WSHA, Hospital Members to Testify on “Balance Billing” Bill

Early next week the Senate Health Care Committee is expected to hear House Bill 2114, which provides protection from balance billing for patients who receive care from a non-contracted provider at a hospital that is contracted with their health plan. The bill passed the House with many administratively burdensome provisions for hospitals. WSHA and hospital members from our Out-of-Network Billing Task Force will testify at the hearing regarding our concerns with the bill. More details regarding the current bill and our concerns is available here. WSHA has been working with a small group of provider and health plan representatives to find areas of agreement on approaches to address balance billing, though thus far there has been little agreement. If common ground is achieved, it would be a basis for amending and passing a revised bill.  (Andrew Busz, andrewb@wsha.org).