Bill Description: Senate Bill 1315 would impose additional regulations on hospitals and invalidate certain contracts.
Rating: -2
Does it give government any new, additional, or expanded power to prohibit, restrict, or regulate activities in the free market? Conversely, does it eliminate or reduce government intervention in the market?
Senate Bill 1315 would create Section 39-1397, Idaho Code, titled “Maternity Price Transparency and Disclosure.”
It would require “every hospital licensed under this chapter that provides labor and delivery services” to “ensure that its consumer-friendly price estimator portal displays a comprehensive quote for a maternity episode of care” and make the quote “available on a single dedicated page that is accessible by a single click from the portal's main pricing index.”
Additionally, hospitals would be required to “create and maintain a clearly labeled, single-click entry point page within its publicly available price estimator tool for both a vaginal birth episode of care and a cesarean birth episode of care.”
The bill includes a list of specific requirements for the episode of care pages.
Most troubling of all, the bill says, “A hospital licensed in this state shall not enter into a contract that prevents it from offering a discounted cash price for labor and delivery health services below other contracted rates with either commercial or public payers or that prevents the hospital from disclosing its discounted cash price to patients. Any clause in an existing contract that violates this subsection is void and unenforceable to the extent of the conflict.”
Forbidding contracts — and even invalidating existing contracts — is a particularly egregious form of market intervention.
(-1)
Does it violate the principles of federalism by increasing federal authority, yielding to federal blandishments, or incorporating changeable federal laws into Idaho statutes or rules? Examples include citing federal code without noting as it is written on a certain date, using state resources to enforce federal law, and refusing to support and uphold the tenth amendment. Conversely, does it restore or uphold the principles of federalism?
The bill says, “In addition to reporting compliance with the federal hospital price transparency requirements of 45 CFR 180, every hospital licensed under this chapter that provides labor and delivery services shall ensure that its consumer-friendly price estimator portal displays a comprehensive quote for a maternity episode of care.”
This language effectively makes compliance with “45 CFR 180” a requirement under state law.
Incorporating federal law by reference (and requiring compliance with it) subordinates state law to changeable federal statutes, which means that the federal government can effectively change state law without the Legislature's knowledge or consent.
(-1)
