Senate Bill No. 662
(By Senator Hunter)
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[Introduced February 13, 2008; referred to the Committee on
Health and Human Resources.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact §16-29B-17 of the Code of West
Virginia, 1931, as amended, relating to requiring hospitals to
report to the State Board of Health their charity policies,
how the hospital publicizes their charity care policy and
their collection policies for bad debt; and requiring the
State Board of Health to adopt a charity care policy for free
charity care for certain uninsured citizens by the first day
of January, two thousand nine.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §16-29B-17 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as
amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 29B. HEALTH CARE AUTHORITY.
§16-29B-17. Uniform system of financial reporting.
(a) The board shall develop and specify a uniform system of
reporting utilization, accounting and financial reporting, including cost allocation methods by which hospitals shall record
their revenues, income, expenses, capital outlays, assets,
liabilities and units of service. The development and
specification process aforementioned shall be conducted in a manner
determined by the board to be most efficient for that purpose
notwithstanding the provisions of chapter twenty-nine-a of this
code. Each hospital shall adopt this uniform system for the
purpose of reporting utilization, costs and revenues to the board
effective for the fiscal year beginning on or after twelve months
from the effective date of this article.
(b) The board may provide for modification in the accounting
and reporting system in order to correctly reflect differences in
the scope or type of services and financial structures of the
various categories, sizes and types of hospitals and in a manner
consistent with the purposes of this article.
(c) The board may provide technical assistance to those
hospitals which request it and which evidence sufficient need for
assistance in the establishment of a data collection system to the
extent that funds are available to the board for this purpose.
(d) The board shall, after consultation with health care
providers, purchasers, classes of purchasers and third-party
payors, adopt a mandatory form for reporting to the board, at its
request, medical diagnosis, treatment and other services rendered
to each purchaser by health care providers subject to the provisions of this article.
(e) Following a public hearing, the board shall establish a
program to minimize the administrative burden on hospitals by
eliminating unnecessary duplication of financial and operational
reports; and to the extent possible, notwithstanding any other law,
coordinate reviews, reports and inspections performed by federal,
state, local and private agencies.
(f) By the first day of July, two thousand eight and every
first day of July thereafter, hospitals shall report to the board
their charity care policies, how the hospital publicizes their
charity care policy and their collection policies for bad debt.
After reviewing the charity care and collection policies, the board
shall convene a public hearing to determine whether the board
should adopt minimum standards for hospital charity care policies,
minimum standards for publication and dissemination of those
policies and minimum standards for bad debt collection policies.
The board may update these standards from time to time: Provided,
That after the first day of January, two thousand nine, hospitals
shall adopt a charity care policy that, at a minimum, provides free
charity care to uninsured citizens whose family income is below one
percent of the federal poverty level and charges citizens with
family incomes between one and one percent of federal poverty level
and three percent of federal poverty levels a rate not to exceed
the allowable rate for medicare patients for the same service.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to require hospitals to
report to the State Board of Health their charity policies, how the
hospital publicizes their charity care policy, and their collection
policies for bad debt; and requiring the State Board of Health to
adopt a charity care policy for free charity care to certain
uninsured citizens by January 1, 2009.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.
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