Bill > H979

This bill aims to increase transparency and fairness in hospital finances by establishing penalties for excessive profits and executive compensation, and by requiring public reporting of financial assets. Specifically, hospitals that accept state funds and have more than 60% of their patients covered by private insurance, not government programs like Medicaid, will face a penalty equal to any operating profit margin exceeding 8% in a fiscal year. Additionally, if a hospital's Chief Executive Officer (CEO) earns more than 100 times the compensation of the lowest-paid full-time employee, the hospital will be fined for the amount exceeding that threshold. The bill also mandates that hospitals report all their financial assets, including those held overseas, to the Center for Health Information and Analysis (CHIA), which will then make this information public within seven days. All collected penalties will be deposited into a new "Medicaid Reimbursement Enhancement Fund" to improve payments to eligible hospitals for Medicaid patients. The Health Policy Commission will be responsible for creating regulations to implement and enforce these provisions, which are set to take effect on July 1, 2015, and will not affect existing contracts.