By Ana B. Ibarra
July 10, 2019
Citing fierce pushback from
hospitals, California lawmakers sidelined a bill Wednesday that would have
protected some patients from surprise medical bills by limiting how much
hospitals could charge them for emergency care.
The legislation, which
contributed to the intense national conversation about surprise medical
billing, was scheduled to be debated Wednesday in the state Senate Health
Committee.
Instead, the bill’s author
pulled it from consideration, vowing to bring it back next year.
“We are going after a practice
that has generated billions of dollars for hospitals, so this is high-level,”
said Assemblyman David Chiu (D-San Francisco). “This certainly does not mean
we’re done.”
Chiu said he and his team
would keep working on amendments to the bill that address the concerns of
hospitals while maintaining protections for patients.
Hospitals focused their
opposition on a provision of the bill that would have limited what they can
charge insurers for out-of-network emergency services, criticizing it as an
unnecessary form of rate setting.
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