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Minutes for HB2246 - Committee on Insurance
Short Title
Enacting the consumer protection related to hospital price transparency act.
Minutes Content for Mon, Feb 10, 2025
The hearing on HB2246 was opened by the Chair. Assistant Revisor Ma addressed the contents of the bill via WebEx and stood for questions.(Attachment 3) Representative Neighbor questioned the necessity of codifying state legislation that is already covered by Federal Law.
There were no proponents or neutrals present.
In-person opponents to HB2246 include:
Bill Lane, Administrative Director, Stormont Vail Health, gave testimony compiled by Stacie Mason, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer; Stormont Vail. Mr. Lane suggested this bill was a duplicate of existing federal requirements, was a punitive approach that would harm hospitals and patients; and was an unnecessary expansion of government bureaucracy. Additionally, he believes hospitals are already meeting transparency goals, and that this bill poses a direct threat to hospitals in the Flint Hills Region. (Attachment 4)
Weston Tallman, Chief Executive Officer, Rice Community Health reiterated comments of the previous conferee. He believes price transparency to empower patients should be the focus, not punitive regulations. (Attachment 5)
Shannon Flach, Vice President, Health Care Finance and Reimbursement, believes this bill would potentially cause hospitals to have to refund insurance payers due to compliance issues that were of no fault to the hospital. Additionally, since Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is already overseeing pricing and enforcement for Kansas hospitals, he believes the appropriate arbitrator of compliance should be the CMS. (Attachment 6)
Opponents to HB2246 providing written testimony include:
Kevin Strecker, CEO and Ministry Marketing Executive, Acension Via Christi, suggests this legislation creates redundant, state-level regulations that will create confusion with federal regulations that already exist while not achieving its goal of making the system more transparent and user friendly for consumers. (Attachment 7)
Nicole Milo, Common Spirit Health, writes this bill will create an additional burden on hospitals to defend their compliance with federal law. (Attachment 8)
Steve Kearney, President of Kearney Associates, Inc. on behalf of Physician Hospitals of Kansas, believes the insurance industry must also be transparent with their consumers about what their policies actually cover. (Attachment 9)
Ruth Duling, CEO, Girard Medical Center, wants to know why Kansas would duplicate the federal governments requirements and unnecessarily grow government oversight. (Attachment 10)
The Chair closed the hearing on HB2246.
The meeting was adjourned by the Chair.
