H 3765 Session 112 (1997-1998)
H 3765 General Bill, By Tripp, J.L.M. Cromer, Davenport, Hamilton, Klauber,
Loftis, McMahand and F. Smith
A BILL TO AMEND TITLE 44, CHAPTER 7, CODE OF LAWS OF SOUTH CAROLINA, 1976,
RELATING TO HOSPITALS, TUBERCULOSIS CAMPS, AND HEALTH SERVICE DISTRICTS BY
ADDING ARTICLE 10 SO AS TO ENACT THE SOUTH CAROLINA PUBLIC HOSPITAL FAIRNESS
ACT AND TO REQUIRE PUBLIC HOSPITALS PROVIDING REGIONAL SERVICES TO ALLOW OTHER
ACUTE CARE HOSPITAL FACILITIES WITHIN THE SERVICE DISTRICT TO PURCHASE THE
REGIONAL SERVICE AND TO PROVIDE PROCEDURES AND REMEDIES FOR VIOLATIONS.
04/01/97 House Introduced and read first time HJ-16
04/01/97 House Referred to Committee on Medical, Military,
Public and Municipal Affairs HJ-16
A BILL
TO AMEND TITLE 44, CHAPTER 7, CODE OF LAWS OF
SOUTH CAROLINA, 1976, RELATING TO HOSPITALS,
TUBERCULOSIS CAMPS, AND HEALTH SERVICE DISTRICTS
BY ADDING ARTICLE 10 SO AS TO ENACT THE SOUTH
CAROLINA PUBLIC HOSPITAL FAIRNESS ACT AND TO
REQUIRE PUBLIC HOSPITALS PROVIDING REGIONAL
SERVICES TO ALLOW OTHER ACUTE CARE HOSPITAL
FACILITIES WITHIN THE SERVICE DISTRICT TO PURCHASE
THE REGIONAL SERVICE AND TO PROVIDE PROCEDURES
AND REMEDIES FOR VIOLATIONS.
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of South
Carolina:
SECTION 1. Title 44, Chapter 7 of the 1976 Code is amended by
adding:
"Article 10
Public Hospital Fairness Act
Section 44-7-1310. This article may be cited as the 'South
Carolina Public Hospital Fairness Act'.
Section 44-7-1320. As used in this article:
(1) 'Affiliate' with respect to any person or entity means a person
or entity that directly or indirectly controls, is controlled by, or is
under common control of the person or entity, whether through the
ownership of stock or assets, statutory authority, contract or
otherwise.
(2) 'Facility' means an entity or person that owns or controls,
whether through the ownership of voting securities, by contract, or
otherwise, directly or indirectly one or more acute care hospitals.
(3) 'Health care service' means a medical service that is provided
by an acute care hospital including, but not limited to, a service that
is identified separately under a generally applicable coding, listing,
or other classification or identification of medical services.
(4) 'Hospital' means a facility that is licensed, staffed, and
operated as an acute care hospital. Facilities whose inpatient beds are
used solely for subacute care are not considered hospitals for
purposes of this article.
(5) 'Offered price' with respect to a regional service of a public
hospital means a price, other than a price mandated by law in
connection with Medicare, Medicaid, Champus, or another similar
state or federal governmental programs, offered or agreed to at any
time by the public hospital or any of its affiliates under any type of
arrangement which would allow a person or entity to obtain that
regional service from the public hospital or any of its affiliates.
(6) 'Public Hospital' means an entity that is a political subdivision
of this State that together with its affiliates owns or controls a
regional center and two or more other hospitals located within a
twenty-mile radius of the regional center. For purposes of this
article, regional health service districts and health service districts
provided for in Articles 15 and 16 and any similar entities are
considered public hospitals.
(7) 'Regional center' means a general acute care hospital, other
than a state medical university hospital or a hospital owned by the
federal government, with legal authorization (whether by license,
certificate of need, or otherwise) for at least three hundred general
hospital beds.
(8) 'Regional service' means a health care service that is provided
at one or more locations within a service radius of a public hospital
only by one or more hospitals of the public hospital or its affiliates
when there is at least one acute care hospital located in that service
radius that is not controlled directly or indirectly by that public
hospital or any of its affiliates.
(9) 'Service radius' with respect to a public hospital means a
radius of twenty miles from the location of a regional center owned
or controlled by a public hospital or any of its affiliates.
Section 44-7-1370. (A) Subject to the exception in subsection
(C), a public hospital that provides a regional service within a service
radius of that public hospital and any of the affiliates of that public
hospital that provides a regional service within that service radius
must allow any other facility with an acute care hospital located
within that service radius to purchase the regional service provided
within that service radius at whatever offered prices with respect to
that regional service as the other facility may select from time to
time. An offered price must be made available to the other facility
without requiring that a particular volume of services be purchased
and, with respect to a regional service, for as long as the respective
offered price would have been available with respect to that regional
service under the terms of any offer. A facility that purchases a
regional service under this subsection is entitled to do so for itself and
for the benefit of insurance companies and other entities who pay for
health care services rendered to their insureds, subscribers, or
members.
(B) Subject to the exception in subsection (C), a public hospital,
after receipt of a written request from another facility with a hospital
located within a service radius of that public hospital, shall provide
in writing a complete, detailed statement of all offered prices, in any
form, currently offered, or agreed to or offered or agreed to in the
future by the public hospital or any of its affiliates regarding each
regional service provided by the public hospital or its affiliates within
that service radius. The information requested must be delivered
either by facsimile if a confirmation copy is immediately sent by mail
or by hand to the person specified from time to time by the facility
making the request for information and:
(1) with respect to prices already offered, agreed to, or in effect
at the time the request for pricing information is received, must be
delivered to the requesting facility within ten days of the request; and
(2) with respect to prices offered or agreed to after the request
is made must be delivered no later than simultaneously with the
making of an offer of or agreement to that pricing, as the case may
be.
(C) This section does not require the provision of prices regarding
a regional service or the sale of that regional service to a facility if
that facility itself actually provides that regional service at any
location within this State.
Section 44-7-1380. No public hospital or any of its affiliates shall
explicitly, implicitly, directly or indirectly, impose any condition or
conditions in connection with the availability of any discounts or
beneficial pricing arrangements for any regional service when the
intent or effect of that condition or those conditions is to induce the
payor for that service to do anything to attempt to influence, cause,
or encourage any person or entity to obtain any other health care
service from the public hospital or any of its affiliates rather than any
other hospital or other provider which is within the service radius of
the public hospital and which is willing to provide or make available
that other health care service on the same or comparable pricing
arrangements.
Section 44-7-1390. (A) If a public hospital or any of its affiliates
violates or threatens to violate the provisions of Section 44-7-1370,
a facility that, as a result of the actual or threatened violation, has
failed or would fail to receive the benefits of Section 44-7-1370 may
bring an action to recover damages or to obtain injunctive relief or
both. The trial judge shall award the facility which obtains damages
or injunctive relief or both three times the actual damages and
reasonable attorney's fees and costs incurred by that facility in
connection with bringing the action for damages or injunctive relief
or both.
(B) An action under this section may be brought in the court of
common pleas in the county in which the complaining facility
maintains a hospital, has its principal place of business, or conducts
business.
(C) The courts are authorized to issue orders and injunctions to
restrain and prevent violations of this article, and these orders and
injunctions must be issued without bond."
SECTION 2. This act takes effect upon approval by the Governor.
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