{"bills":[{"photos":{"featured":"https://assets.causes.com/bill/photo/hr876-114/featured_notice-act-1454547605.jpg","featured_large":"https://assets.causes.com/bill/photo/hr876-114/featured_large_notice-act-1454547605.jpg","shareable":"https://n.causes.com/share-images/bills/hr876-114.png"},"introduced_on":"2015-02-11","title_override":"Should Hospitals Be Required To Tell Medicare Patients How Much An Outpatient Stay Costs?","summary_override":"

This bill seeks to improve the information given to patients about the cost of their care. Under it, Medicare beneficiaries under outpatient care for more than 24 hours would receive a hospital notice of:

the difference between receiving care under outpatient observation and receiving care in a hospital and why the healthcare professionals made that choice;
the effect this decision would have on Medicare coverage or other cost-sharing mechanisms.

The bill does not require, but would allow the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services to require that patients or those acting on their behalf sign the notification to show that they’ve received it. It also requires that the notification be written in plain language, and that people who would prefer to receive it orally can do so.

Hospitals would have to give 36 hours notice after placing a person under this care. If the bill passes, healthcare facilities would have one year to fully comply with the new regulations.

","official_title":"To amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to require hospitals to provide certain notifications to individuals classified by such hospitals under observation status rather than admitted as inpatients of such hospitals.","short_title":"NOTICE Act","popular_title":null,"short_summary":"(This measure has not been amended since it was passed by the House on March 16, 2015. The summary of that version is repeated here.) Notice of Observation Treatment and Implication for Care Eligibility Act or the NOTICE Act \n\n(Sec. 2) This bill amends title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act to require a hospital or critical access hospital with an agreement with the Secretary of Health and Human Services to give each individual who receives observation services as an outpatient for more than 24 hours an adequate oral and written notification within 36 hours after beginning to receive them which:\n\n explains the individual's status as an outpatient and not as an inpatient and the reasons why; explains the implications of that status on services furnished (including those furnished as an inpatient), in particular the implications for cost-sharing requirements and subsequent coverage eligibility for services furnished by a skilled nursing facility; includes appropriate additional...","summarized":true,"cost":null,"cost_commentary":"The CBO estimates that this bill would have no significant impact on the Federal budget over the next ten years. 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Should Hospitals Be Required To Tell Medicare Patients How Much An Outpatient Stay Costs?