Committee advances hospital price-transparency bill after amendment to centralize reporting and require portal

The Senate committee considered a committee substitute for Senate Bill 718 that would require hospitals to file annual financial reports and detailed charge information with the West Virginia Insurance Commission and would make parts of that information publicly available through a web-based portal. Committee members adopted an amendment to centralize reporting with the insurance commissioner, require a portal with a comparison tool, and move the effective date to allow time for implementation; the substitute as amended was adopted and reported to the full Senate with a favorable recommendation.

Committee counsel described the bill as a transparency measure that would require hospitals to submit statements of assets, liabilities, income and expenses, the chargemaster (schedule of rates), statements of ownership for persons with more than 5% ownership, copies of federal reports filed with CMS, lists of charges that exceed $150,000 and other specified materials. Counsel said the insurance commissioner would have authority to protect confidential or proprietary…