Bill > SB476

This bill enhances healthcare cost transparency by requiring hospitals and health insurers to provide clearer, more accessible price estimates to consumers. Specifically, hospitals must maintain public pricing files and patient-friendly service estimators that align with federal transparency requirements, and they receive a legal "safe harbor" protecting them from penalties for good-faith estimates that have minor variances due to clinical changes or unexpected factors. Health insurers must enable consumers to obtain free, member-specific price estimates through their existing online tools and application programming interfaces (APIs), which must include details like provider information, expected insurance payments, and patient out-of-pocket costs. The bill also expands the state's Comprehensive Health Care Information System (APCD) to support a consumer portal that can display de-identified price benchmarks and link to carrier pricing tools. To implement these requirements, the insurance and health departments will adopt administrative rules, with a 60-day cure period for initial compliance issues. Importantly, the bill mandates using existing technological infrastructure rather than building new state systems, and it aims to reduce reporting burdens while improving healthcare price transparency for consumers. The new provisions will take effect between 60 and 12 months after the bill's passage, depending on the specific section.

Health and Social Services

https://gc.nh.gov/bill_Status/billinfo.aspx?id=1224&inflect=2