Health Care. Regulation. Consumer Protection.

HEALTH CARE. REGULATION. CONSUMER PROTECTION. INITIATIVE STATUTE. Prohibits health care businesses from: discouraging health care professionals from informing patients or advocating for treatment; offering incentives for withholding care; refusing services recommended by physician or nurse without examination by business\u27 own professional; conditioning coverage on arbitration agreement; increasing charges without filing required statement. Requires health care businesses to: make tax returns public; establish written criteria for denying payments which are determined by licensed health professionals. Assesses taxes for certain downsizings, mergers, and conversions to for-profit status. Establishes non-profit corporation to advocate for health care consumers. Authorizes public and private enforcement actions. Summary of estimate by Legislative Analyst and Director of Finance of fiscal impact on state and local governments: This measure could result in unknown revenues and expenditures, potentially ranging from tens to hundreds of millions of dollars in any particular year, from the Public Health and Preventive Services Fund, for state administration costs and certain health services. The measure could also result in unknown revenue losses to the state General Fund, potentially in the millions to tens of millions of dollars in any particular year, due to the four new taxes on certain health care businesses which would be tax deductible business expenses. The measure could result in unknown costs, potentially in the several hundreds of millions of dollars annually, to state and local governments as providers of health care, primarily due to provisions affecting health facility staffing and utilization review processes.. To the extent that this measure increases costs for health care delivery in the private sector, it could also result in unknown, but potentially significant, indirect costs to state and local governments which provide or purchase health care for employees