Lapid wants patients better informed about medical bills

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MANILA, Philippines — A bill that aims to require hospitals and healthcare providers to be more transparent by informing patients in advance of the actual prices of their services as well as expected out-of-pocket costs has been filed in the Senate.

Senator Lito Lapid filed Senate Bill No. 2334 or the proposed Medical Bill Transparency Act, which seeks to enhance the ability of patients to choose the healthcare that is best for them.

“This bill seeks to prevent unexpected medical bills and inflated out-of-pocket expenses,” Lapid said in the bill’s explanatory note.

Under the measure, hospitals and health care providers are mandated to inform patients about the actual prices of their services to help prevent “surprise billing” or patients receiving unexpected medical bills at “inflated” prices.

The bill also requires health care providers, health insurance issuers, and self-insured group health plans to provide information on expected out-of-pocket costs.

Eliminating “unnecessary barriers” to price and quality transparency, increasing the availability of meaningful price and quality information to patients, and enhancing patient’s control over their own healthcare resources, including health insurance coverage, are also mandated under the measure.

In pushing for his bill, Lapid said the country’s health care system “still has not fully addressed the issue of medical pricing, such as transparency of medical expenses or bills” despite the existence of the Universal Health Care (UHC) Law.

He cited a 2012 Family Income and Expenditure Survey which showed that out-of-pocket health expenditures increased by 150 percent from 2000 to 2012.

“These high healthcare costs push Filipino households into poverty,” he added.

If passed into law, the bill tasks the health secretary to craft regulations that would require hospitals to publicly post standard charge information.

This will include charges and information based on negotiated rates for common items and services, in an easy-to-understand, consumer-friendly, and machine-readable format.

To ensure transparency in health insurance coverage, the bill requires the health and finance secretaries to jointly issue regulations requiring healthcare providers, health insurance issuers, and self-insured group health plans to provide or facilitate access to information about expected out-of-pocket costs for items or services to patients before they receive care.

The finance secretary, meanwhile, is tasked to issue guidance to expand the ability of patients to select health insurance plans that cover low-cost preventive care, and/or medical care for individuals with chronic conditions, according to the measure.

/MUF