Bill > S624

This bill mandates increased transparency regarding hospital financial performance, specifically focusing on "operating margins," which represent a hospital's profit from its core services after accounting for expenses. If an "Acute Hospital," a facility providing general medical and surgical care, reports an operating margin exceeding 6% in a fiscal year, the "division" (likely referring to the Division of Insurance) must hold a public hearing within 60 days. During this hearing, the hospital must explain its overall financial health, justify the need for such a high operating margin, detail its efforts to control healthcare costs and improve quality, and specify how much of the excess margin will be used to reduce healthcare costs. The "center" (referring to the Center for Health Information and Analysis) will review this testimony and issue a report, using data already collected by hospitals. Furthermore, the bill requires the center, in consultation with the division of insurance, to establish regulations by July 1, 2015, for a uniform method of calculating and reporting both inpatient and outpatient costs for all hospitals. These regulations will ensure hospitals report cost and cost trend information consistently, covering various expense categories such as labor, debt, depreciation, advertising, insurance, technology, and different types of business (commercial, Medicaid, Medicare, etc.), and will be developed after consulting with various healthcare stakeholders.