CO Senate passes hospital charity-care bill

A hospital charity-care bill received overwhelming final approval from the Colorado Senate on Tuesday after its sponsor worked with healthcare facilities to ease their potential financial burdens. Senate Bill 134, sponsored by Sen. Irene Aguilar, D-Denver, requires hospitals to inform all uninsured patients about payment-plan programs and to discount the amount charged to anyone that makes less than 250 percent of the federal poverty level—$57,625 annually for a family of four. It also prohibits hospitals from billing any patients in that income range more than the lowest cost they bill insurance companies for the same procedures.