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Pennsylvania State Senate
https://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/Legis/CSM/showMemoPublic.cfm?chamber=S&SPick=20130&cosponId=11574
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Senate of Pennsylvania
Session of 2013 - 2014 Regular Session

MEMORANDUM

Posted: February 7, 2013 09:22 AM
From: Senator Charles T. McIlhinney, Jr.
To: All Senate members
Subject: Memo #2 - Fairness in Copayment Act
 
In the near future, I will be reintroducing Senate Bill 1391 from last session, legislation that will protect consumers by prohibiting healthcare plans from inappropriately shifting the cost of medical care to the consumer by limiting co-payments to no more than the cost of the copayment or coinsurance for an insured’s primary care physician office visit. Under existing law, coverage exists for certain types of services. Despite these requirements health plans have shifted the vast majority of the cost by imposing increasingly high co-payments on consumers. In some circumstances, copayments have exceeded the reimbursement paid by the plan to the provider of care.

This cost shift has imposed a financial burden on consumers, and it has restricted access to certain services. Consumers frequently cannot afford the cost imposed by these copayments for medically necessary care. This bill would reestablish the obligation of health plans to cover the expense of medical services by limiting co-payments. This limitation will allow plans to require co-payments that discourage inappropriate care but will prohibit plans from inappropriately shifting the cost of care to consumers. Please join me in cosponsoring this legislation.

Sponsors of the previous legislation include: Rafferty, Boscola, Waugh, Alloway, Costa, Kasunic, D. White, Gordner, Robbins, Wozniak, Erickson, Browne, Farnese, Mensch and Argall.

If you have any questions regarding this legislation, please contact Gail Reinard at 787-7305. Thank you.



Introduced as SB594