LA County’s Ambitious Plan to Reduce Medical Debt, AI-in-Health Care Bills in CA & More

LA County Launching Ambitious Plan to Address Medical Debt

Los Angeles County’s Department of Public Health has developed an ambitious plan to address the problem of medical debt, which impacted one in ten, or about 810,000, residents of the county and totaled over $2.6 billion in 2021. The plan calls for the tracking of patients’ debt and hospitals’ debt collection practices, as well as the forgiveness of billions of dollars in unpaid bills.

But the county has gotten some pushback to the plan from the local hospital association.

“We believe the proposed DPH [Department of Public Health] debt relief program and data collection effort will only burden hospitals with unnecessary requirements, without ultimately helping to address the underlying issue,” George Greene, CEO of the Hospital Association of Southern California, wrote in a letter to the LA County Board of Supervisors last month.

Adena Tessler, LA County regional vice president for the hospital association, also said the county was focusing too much on hospitals’ role in the debt problem and not enough on other sectors of the health care system, like insurance companies. (KFF HEALTH NEWS)

AI-in-Health Care Bills Advance in CA

California’s House unanimously passed a bill (AB 3030) that would require health care providers to notify patients when they use artificial intelligence to communicate with them and provide clear instructions for how patients can communicate with a human provider. Days later the state’s Senate unanimously passed a measure (SB 1120) that would require AI used by health insurers for utilization review or utilization management decisions to meet certain requirements, including fair and equitable application of the technology. (PLURIBUS NEWS, LEXISNEXIS STATE NET)

DE Lawmakers Pass Bill to Create Hospital Budget Review Board

The Delaware legislature passed a bill (HB 350), modeled after a Vermont law, that would create a state board with the authority to review hospitals’ annual budgets and make sure their cost increases align with state benchmarks. Gov. John Carney (D) said he was looking forward to signing the measure. (ASSOCIATED PRESS, LEXISNEXIS STATE NET)

LA Senate Passes Bill to Protect IVF

Louisiana’s Senate passed a bill (HB 833) to safeguard access to in vitro fertilization after a court decision in Alabama temporarily halted IVF treatment in that state earlier in the year. The bill would shield IVF providers from civil and criminal liability, while still allowing lawsuits for gross negligence.

The measure was also amended in the chamber to bar providers from transferring embryos out of state for destruction, which critics say is unconstitutional. The measure now returns to the House for concurrence. (NEW ORLEANS PUBLIC RADIO, LEXISNEXIS STATE NET) 

—Compiled by SNCJ Managing Editor KOREY CLARK

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