HB1385 creates the Community Cares Initiative Grant Pilot Program to fund mobile health care and crisis teams in Indiana, supported by a new Community Cares Initiative Fund. It requires health plan operators to pay nonparticipating ambulance providers for services to covered individuals at the lower of three rates: the local county rate, 400% of Medicare rates, or the provider’s billed charges. Once paid, the provider cannot bill the patient beyond normal cost-sharing. The bill also mandates that health plan operators pay or respond to claims within 30 days.
The Indiana State Senate passed HB1385 on March 8, 2024 by a vote of 45 to 2. We have assigned pluses to the nays because this legislation expands government control over healthcare, which is unconstitutional. By imposing rate caps on what nonparticipating ambulance providers can charge, the bill interferes with the free market, undermining competition and restricting providers’ ability to set prices based on cost and demand. Additionally, government-issued grants often give the government or bureaucracy the authority to choose winners and losers, leading to an expansion of government and increased interference in the private sector.