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

Summary:
This bill establishes certain requirements relating to health care billing practices.
Specifically, the bill requires health care facilities and practitioners to (1) provide patients with a list of rendered services upon discharge, and (2) send all bills to patients within 30 business days. Further, patients may not be required to pay a bill earlier than 30 business days from the date of receipt.
Facilities and practitioners must report any bills that are sent outside of the authorized time period to the Department of Health and Human Services and must also issue refunds to the patients billed; repeated violations are subject to civil penalties.

[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1688 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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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 Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. PATIENT DISCLOSURES.

    Part P of title III of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 
280g et seq.) is amended by adding at the end the following:

``SEC. 399V-7. PATIENT DISCLOSURES.

    ``(a) In General.--The Secretary shall require--
            ``(1) health care facilities and practitioners to provide 
        to patients a list of services rendered during the visit to 
        such facility or practitioner upon discharge; and
            ``(2) health care facilities and practitioners to send all 
        bills to the patient within 30 business days.
    ``(b) Payment After Billing.--No patient may be required to pay a 
bill for health care services any earlier than 30 business days after 
receipt of a bill for such services.
    ``(c) Effect of Violation.--
            ``(1) Notification and refund requirements.--If a facility 
        or practitioner bills a patient after the 30-business-day 
        period described in subsection (a)(2), such facility or 
        practitioner shall--
                    ``(A) report such bill to the Secretary; and
                    ``(B) refund the patient for the full amount paid 
                in response to such bill with interest, at a rate 
                determined by the Secretary.
            ``(2) Civil monetary penalties.--
                    ``(A) In general.--The Secretary may impose civil 
                monetary penalties of up to $10,000 a day on any 
                facility or practitioner that submits more than 10 
                bills outside of the period described in subsection 
                (a)(2), beginning on the date on which such facility or 
                practitioner sends the tenth such bill.
                    ``(B) Procedure.--The provisions of section 1128A 
                of the Social Security Act, other than subsections (a) 
                and (b) and the first sentence of subsection (c)(1) of 
                such section, shall apply to civil money penalties 
                under this subsection in the same manner as such 
                provisions apply to a penalty or proceeding under 
                section 1128A of the Social Security Act.''.
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