The Indiana Senate today is expected to take up legislation that supporters say will improve health care for Hoosiers.

State Sen. Liz Brown (R-Fort Wayne) Tuesday detailed Senate Bill 400, health care matters.   Senate Bill 400 introduces various changes to insurance and health care administration with four goals: increasing access to health care services, providing further transparency in health care decisions, reducing overall health care costs and retaining young doctors.

Increasing access to health care

  • Expedites authorization procedures for timelier health care services
  • Speeds up the timeline for Medicaid, insurers and health maintenance organizations to credential health care providers
  • Requires a hospital to always have at least one physician on site and on duty while the emergency department is open

Improving transparency in health care

  • Standardizes hospital quality assessment and improvement programs with respect to a hospital’s process of reporting serious reportable errors in health care
  • Prevents an insurer from altering a clean claim or paying for a lower value service unless the clean claim has been reviewed by a physician-employee of the insurer

Reducing the cost of health care

  • Requires health insurers to file any planned premium rate increases to health insurance policies with the Indiana Department of Insurance
  • Appropriates $600,000 over the biennium in financial support to the Indiana foundation for dentistry to provide dental procedures
  • Establishes a public health grant program with the purpose of providing public health funding from a mix of revenue streams including licensing fees, appropriations and grants

Retaining medical students (amendment)

  • Allows recently graduated medical students to be licensed as an associate physician in the event they are not matched with a residency

 “The main purpose of this bill is to increase access, lower costs and transparency in health care,” Brown said. “We must improve our overall health in Indiana, and I believe getting these things done will help get our state back on track in health.”