What’s happening: The Department of Health Care Access and Information (HCAI) has finalized new regulations, effective Jan. 1, 2024, about hospital charity and discount care policies and practices.
What else to know: Based on CHA’s advocacy, HCAI amended the proposed regulations, providing hospitals more time to respond to patient complaints and reducing penalties.
These regulations establish new requirements for:
- Patient handouts, signage, and hospital website information about charity care, discount payment, and billing/collections
- Submitting hospital policies to HCAI
- Responding to patient complaints
- Penalties for violating the Hospital Fair Pricing Policies (HFPP) statutes and regulations
The regulations were required by Assembly Bill 1020 (2021), which also transferred enforcement authority for the HFPP law from the California Department of Public Health to HCAI.
Hospital CFOs and compliance officers should review the new requirements and take the steps needed to become compliant by Jan. 1, 2024.
Contact Trina Gonzalez, vice president, policy, at tgonzalez@calhospital.org or Lois Richardson, vice president, legal counsel, at lrichardson@calhospital.org with any questions.
