House adopts bill letting judges and juries see more medical-billing evidence in injury trials

The Louisiana House on Thursday approved a measure by Rep. Greg Glorioso that changes what evidence triers of fact may see when awarding medical expenses in personal-injury trials.

The bill, House Bill 34, allows a plaintiff to introduce evidence about billed medical amounts and allows defendants to present evidence — including what insurers paid — to contradict those figures. Glorioso said the change is prospective only and designed to give judges or juries “all the facts” to decide what is reasonable.

Glorioso, the bill’s sponsor, told colleagues the proposal would let “the plaintiff put on evidence of whatever they choose to relating to their medical bills — the billed amount, the charged amount — but the defendant also gets to put on their own evidence to contradict the evidence to determine whether or not the medicals are…