Current Status Bill Number:3957 Type of Legislation:General Bill GB Introducing Body:House Introduced Date:19950406 Primary Sponsor:Cato, All Sponsors:Cato, Tripp, Easterday, Jaskwhich, Rice, McMahand, Fair and Haskins Drafted Document Number:br1\18286ac.95 Residing Body:House Current Committee:Medical, Military, Public and Municipal Affairs Committee 27 H3M Subject:Hospital Equal Access Act
Body Date Action Description Com Leg Involved
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House 19950406 Introduced, read first time, 27 H3M
referred to Committee
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TO AMEND TITLE 44, CHAPTER 7, CODE OF LAWS OF SOUTH CAROLINA, 1976, RELATING TO HOSPITALS, BY ADDING ARTICLE 12 SO AS TO ENACT THE SOUTH CAROLINA HOSPITAL EQUAL ACCESS ACT AND TO DEFINE TERMS, ESTABLISH DUTIES AND PROCEDURES FOR PROVIDING EQUAL ACCESS TO HOSPITAL SERVICES, AND TO CREATE A CAUSE OF ACTION FOR TREBLE DAMAGES FOR VIOLATIONS OF THIS ARTICLE.
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:
Section 44-7-1710. This article may be cited as the South Carolina Hospital Equal Access Act.
Section 44-7-1720. As used in this article:
(1) `Affiliate' with respect to a 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 voting securities by 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) `Multiple hospital facility' means acute care hospitals owned or controlled by a facility or one or more of the facility's affiliates or by the facility and one or more of its affiliates that include a regional center and one or more other acute care hospitals located within a twenty-mile radius of the regional center.
(4) `Offered price' with respect to a regional service of a multiple hospital facility is a price, other than a price mandated by law in connection with Medicare, Medicaid, Champus, or another similar state or federal governmental program, offered by the multiple hospital facility or any of its affiliates under an arrangement which allows a resident of the service radius within which the regional service is provided to obtain that regional service within that service radius.
(5) `Health care service' means a 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.
(6) `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 four hundred general hospital beds.
(7) `Service radius' with respect to a multiple hospital facility means a radius of twenty miles from the location of a regional center owned or controlled by a multiple hospital facility or any of its affiliates.
(8) `Regional service' means a health care service that is provided at one or more locations within a service radius of a multiple hospital facility only by one or more hospitals of the multiple hospital facility 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 multiple hospital facility or any of its affiliates.
Section 44-7-1730. (A) Except as provided for in subsection (C), a multiple hospital facility that provides a regional service within a service radius of that multiple hospital facility and any of the affiliates of that multiple hospital facility 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 another 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.
(B) Except as provided for in subsection (C), upon receipt of a written request from another facility with an acute care hospital located within a service radius of that multiple hospital facility a multiple hospital facility shall provide in writing a complete, detailed statement of all offered prices, in any form, currently offered or offered in the future by the multiple hospital facility or any of its affiliates regarding each regional service provided within that service radius. The information requested must be delivered by facsimile and a confirmation copy immediately must be sent by mail or by hand to the person specified by the facility making the request for information and:
(1) with respect to prices already offered 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 after the request is made and which have not already been provided to the requesting facility, must be delivered simultaneously with the making of an offer of that pricing.
(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 44-7-1740. (A) If a multiple hospital facility or any of its affiliates violates or threatens to violate the provisions of Section 44-7-1730, a facility that as a result of the actual or threatened violation has failed or would fail to receive the benefits of Section 44-7-1730 may bring an action to recover damages or to obtain injunctive relief or both. Whenever injunctive relief or a verdict for damages or both are obtained in an action, the trial judge shall award the facility which is entitled to the damages or injunctive relief or both three times the actual damages plus the reasonable attorney's fees and costs incurred by that facility in connection with bringing the claim 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 an acute care 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.