Consumers may be getting an insider’s look into the cost of hospital care and operation under a bill that passed a Senate committee Thursday.
Senate Bill 141 would require hospitals to disclose financial, patient and staffing information to the state health department.
Supporters say the disclosures are needed to understand how hospitals set prices and to assess the quality of care.
But hospital representatives told the Senate health committee that providing the information required under the bill would cost a tremendous amount of money and could force institutions to disclose trade secrets.
“I think it’s going to cause a lot of cost, an unnecessary cost that will be passed on to employers. … Ultimately, they always get passed on to the people who are purchasing the care,” said Ralph Pollock, chairman of the Colorado Association of Commerce and Industry’s health council.
The bill would require hospitals to report the amount of uncompensated care provided, the number of patients turned over to a collections agency, the policies for providing charity care, and nurse staffing data. And it would require hospitals to disclose the difference between how much they charge uninsured and insured patients for care.
It passed the Senate health committee 5-1.
Peter Freytag of the Colorado Health & Hospital Association said hospitals already provide annual, public reports on hospital charges, quality and finances. The bill would “add substantial cost and reporting burden to Colorado hospitals with absolutely no impact on quality to the patient.”
Mitch Ackerman of the Service Employees International Union urged the committee to support the bill: “It’s interesting to hear the industry say that on the one hand we’re providing all of this information and on the other hand it’s going to cost us a fortune to provide all of this information.”
The bill was amended in committee to remove a provision requiring an independent audit. Sen. Lois Tochtrop, D-Thornton, said taking out the provision would save money.
But when asked after the hearing if it took the teeth out of the bill, she said that “perhaps it’s a good idea to keep the independent audit in there.”
Staff writer Chris Frates can be reached at cfrates@denverpost.com or 303-820-1633.
