RI H7875

Beginning January 1, 2027, the Office of the Health Insurance Commissioner must incorporate uncompensated care as a formula-driven numeric adjustment when establishing any affordability standard or rate cap applicable to hospital contracts.

The uncompensated care adjustment must be calculated separately from base rate caps (including those derived from CPI, medical inflation, or economic growth measures) and applied uniformly after the base rate cap is determined.

The adjustment increases allowable hospital reimbursement rates above the base rate cap and cannot be used to reduce, offset, or modify the underlying rate cap methodology in effect as of January 1, 2026.

The commissioner must adopt rules establishing a transparent formula-based method for calculating the statewide hospital uncompensated care adjustment, defining uncompensated care per existing statute (§ 40-8.3-2), converting it to a single percentage adjustment, and updating it annually.

The act takes effect upon passage.