License Freestanding Emergency Departments

The bill creates a new license, referred to as a 'freestanding emergency department license', for the department of public health and environment to issue on or after July 1, 2019, to a health facility that provides emergency and urgent care and is either independent from and not affiliated with or located in a hospital or is operated by a hospital at a location off the hospital's main campus. The state board of health is to adopt rules regarding the new license, including rules to set licensure requirements and fees, safety and care standards, staffing requirements, fee transparency requirements, and other areas related to the operation of freestanding emergency departments. To qualify for a license, a facility must provide claims and billing data to health insurers and must be able to triage patients to determine the level of care they require.

Starting on the date the bill takes effect through June 30, 2019, the department is prohibited from issuing a new license to a person to operate a freestanding health facility that provides emergency care, whether independent from or operated by a hospital, unless the facility will serve an area of the state that has limited access to emergency care.

Additionally, the bill requires a health facility that is operating as a freestanding emergency department under current law to:

• Submit data to insurers to enable reporting of claims and billing data from freestanding emergency departments;
• Differentiate in a patient's billing statement the facility fee, professional fee, and ancillary service charges; and
• Post on its website a current facility fee schedule that indicates the range of facility fees that a patient may be charged and a list of health benefit plans or products for which the facility and its health care providers are in-network or out-of-network.
  (Note: This summary applies to this concurrent resolution as introduced.)