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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
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State
Rep. Tony DeLuca |
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House passes DeLuca health-care consumer bill
HARRISBURG, July 3 – The state House passed legislation introduced by state Rep. Tony DeLuca, D-Allegheny, that would require health-care providers to provide patients, insurers or other third-party payers with information about the cost of off-site pathology services.
"My bill would promote transparency in the health-care system by requiring referring health-care providers to disclose specific information about services provided to patients," DeLuca said. "This would protect both patients and insurers from paying unnecessary health-care costs."
The measure (H.B. 2521) would require a health-care provider to include on a bill presented to a patient or insurer specific information about pathology services that are not directly performed or supervised by the attending doctor. That information would include the name and address of the lab providing biopsy and other pathology services, along with the amount to be paid for each of these services.
DeLuca said under current law, patients or insurers are not entitled to be informed of the actual cost of pathology services when a physician bills for these services provided by external labs.
In June, DeLuca hosted a public hearing on the bill and other related legislation. Testifiers included medical specialists and representatives of the health-care profession.
The Allegheny County legislator says the legislation has been sent to the Senate for consideration.