House Passes Bills Benefiting Schools, Medical Patients And More

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House Passes Bills Benefiting Schools, Medical Patients, And More

April 21, 2021  
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By Carolina Puga Mendoza

TheStatehouseFile.com 

INDIANAPOLIS— The Indiana House unanimously concurred on all of the Senate’s amendments on bills that would allow schools to purchase food from their students’ agriculture projects and require health care practitioners to better explain what their patients are paying for when they seek care.

All bills had minor changes to the language and moved their effective date.

Rep. Ann Vermilion, R-Marion, authored HB 1447 and spoke about the minor changes to the language by the Senate. The bill would enforce good faith health care estimates, which would make sure health care practitioners provide standard explanations of the patient’s bill, allowing for better understanding of the billing process. Photo by Carolina Puga Mendoza, The Statehouse File.

HB 1119—School purchases to agricultural programs

Authored by Rep. Steven Davisson, R-Salem, the bill gives schools an opportunity to buy food from educational agricultural programs. These are projects involving crops or livestock that students work on as part of their school programs. The bill will exempt schools from documentation and allow students to sell their products.

The bill was approved with a 77-0 vote.

According to a publication about school farming, agricultural programs have become popular over the years and teach students about the importance of nutrition education and the relationship between local and regional farmers.

Indiana is the 10th largest farming state in the nation, according to Indiana Agriculture. More than 80% of the state’s land is used for farming crops and livestock.

HB 1287—Water or wastewater service 

HB 1287, authored by Rep. Jim Pressel, R-Rolling Prairie, extends water or wastewater utility service to underserved areas of Indiana. The amendments include the change of effective date to July 1, 2021, and minor changes in the language.

The bill passed with a 78-0 vote.

HB 1447—Good faith estimates 

Authored by Rep. Ann Vermilion, R-Marion, HB 1447 will require health practitioners to provide patients with basic explanations of their bills and why they charge their services in that way. A good faith estimate is a “plain English explanation” allowing patients to fully understand what they are paying for and the reasoning behind it. The effective date was postponed from July 1, 2021 to Jan. 22, 2022.

The House concurred with Senate changes to the bill in a 79-0 vote.

A survey by United Healthcare shows that 9% of U.S. citizens have “some” understanding of health care concepts. According to research by Policy Genius, an insurance marketplace, up to 27% people avoid health care at all because they don’t understand the basic terms and how it works.

Now the bills will head to the governor to become a law or be vetoed.

Carolina Puga Mendoza is a reporter for TheStatehouseFile.com, a news website powered by Franklin College journalism students.

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1 COMMENT

  1. Transparency in health care pricing? Imagine? Wyoming is having to build and fund their own, new, supposedly nonprofit hospital…to create competition….simply because the current health system there refuses to disclose pricing. (Asking Biden and the US Gov’t to help pay for it, too, BTW.) They asked Matt Gaetz what he thought of that when he came up from Florida to attack GOP Liz Cheney for being strong on the rule of law. Gaetz replied, “I am not a pedophile. I did not sleep with underage teens. I am a friend of Donald Trump. We live in Florida.” Hmmm….JoseProudBoy? He lives in FLORIDA now too, right? The scum of America? Moving to Florida?

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