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March 10, 2008 issue
Insurance
BILL: HB 1055 – Assignment of Benefits
AUTHOR: Rep. Charlie Brown, D-Gary
SPONSOR: Sen. Beverly Gard, R-Greenfield
ISMA POSITION: Support
THIS WEEK: No action.
The bill would have required insurers to honor a patient’s request for assignment of benefits to an out-of-network provider. Due to intense opposition to the bill from the insurance industry, the business community and the AFL-CIO, as well as concerns expressed by the Daniels administration, Senate Republicans elected to let the bill die.
The ISMA Government Relations staff would like to thank all ISMA members who called or e-mailed state legislators on HB 1055. We will continue to educate the General Assembly on the issue this summer and debunk false claims by opponents that assignment to out-of-network providers would prompt the disintegration of provider networks and drastically increase health care costs.
We encourage ISMA members to meet with legislators throughout the summer as well to keep this issue before them.
BILL: SB 159 – Silent PPOs
AUTHOR: Sen. Beverly Gard, R-Greenfield
SPONSOR: Rep. Phil Hoy, D-Evansville
ISMA POSITION: Support
THIS WEEK: The full Senate concurred on the bill.
SB 159 would require conspicuous language in a physician contract if a network wishes to sell a physician’s discounted reimbursement rate to third parties. The network also would be required to maintain a Web site or toll-free phone number listing all networks to whom the contracting network has sold the discount.
In addition, the bill would require third parties who purchase the discount to include contact information on explanation of benefits statements for the network who sold the discount.
Finally, the bill would prohibit aggregators from selling or leasing physician reimbursement rates. SB 159 now awaits the governor’s signature.
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