A bill to amend the Public Health Service Act to provide for the full disclosure of billing and service information to patients.

II 116TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION S. 1688 To amend the Public Health Service Act to provide for the full disclosure of billing and service information to patients. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES MAY 23 (legislative day, MAY 22), 2019 Mr. ENZI (for himself and Mr. CASEY) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions A BILL To amend the Public Health Service Act to provide for the full disclosure of billing and service information to patients. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. PATIENT DISCLOSURES. 3 Part P of title III of the Public Health Service Act 4 (42 U.S.C. 280g et seq.) is amended by adding at the end 5 the following: 6 ‘‘SEC. 399V–7. PATIENT DISCLOSURES. 7 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall require— 8 VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:29 Jun 04, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1688.IS S1688 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 2 •S 1688 IS ‘‘(1) health care facilities and practitioners to 1 provide to patients a list of services rendered during 2 the visit to such facility or practitioner upon dis- 3 charge; and 4 ‘‘(2) health care facilities and practitioners to 5 send all bills to the patient within 30 business days. 6 ‘‘(b) PAYMENT AFTER BILLING.—No patient may be 7 required to pay a bill for health care services any earlier 8 than 30 business days after receipt of a bill for such serv- 9 ices. 10 ‘‘(c) EFFECT OF VIOLATION.— 11 ‘‘(1) NOTIFICATION AND REFUND REQUIRE- 12 MENTS.—If a facility or practitioner bills a patient 13 after the 30-business-day period described in sub- 14 section (a)(2), such facility or practitioner shall— 15 ‘‘(A) report such bill to the Secretary; and 16 ‘‘(B) refund the patient for the full 17 amount paid in response to such bill with inter- 18 est, at a rate determined by the Secretary. 19 ‘‘(2) CIVIL MONETARY PENALTIES.— 20 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary may 21 impose civil monetary penalties of up to 22 $10,000 a day on any facility or practitioner 23 that submits more than 10 bills outside of the 24 period described in subsection (a)(2), beginning 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:29 Jun 04, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1688.IS S1688 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 3 •S 1688 IS on the date on which such facility or practi- 1 tioner sends the tenth such bill. 2 ‘‘(B) PROCEDURE.—The provisions of sec- 3 tion 1128A of the Social Security Act, other 4 than subsections (a) and (b) and the first sen- 5 tence of subsection (c)(1) of such section, shall 6 apply to civil money penalties under this sub- 7 section in the same manner as such provisions 8 apply to a penalty or proceeding under section 9 1128A of the Social Security Act.’’. 10 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:29 Jun 04, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\S1688.IS S1688 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS