SB 813 - Health Care Price, Cost and Quality Transparency

• Establishes a consumer health information website through the Connecticut Health Insurance Exchange to provide comparative price, cost, and quality information for health care services, providers, and insurance products, effective October 1, 2015.

• Requires health carriers to submit allowed amounts and out-of-pocket costs to the exchange for the 100 most frequent inpatient admissions and outpatient procedures and 25 most frequent surgical and imaging procedures by January 1, 2016, and annually thereafter.

• Mandates hospitals and outpatient surgical facilities notify patients within two business days of scheduling about charges, Medicare reimbursement amounts, allowed amounts, and quality ratings for The Joint Commission.

• Prohibits health care provider and health carrier contracts from containing provisions that prohibit disclosure of negotiated pricing information, including out-of-pocket expenses, effective October 1, 2015.

• Requires health carriers to develop websites, mobile applications, and toll-free numbers enabling consumers to obtain cost-sharing estimates and quality measures for in-network and out-of-network health care services, with the Insurance Commissioner establishing standard terms and definitions for price transparency.