Accommodating Concierge Medicine, Kansas Enacts Change to Direct Billing Law

Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback signed into law on April 12 a provision, with support from pathologists, to amend direct billing statute in order to accommodate concierge medicine. The CAP and Kansas Society of Pathologists (KSP) negotiated changes to the Kansas anatomic pathology direct bill law with the Kansas Medical Society in 2016. The change to the state’s direct billing law satisfies the practice of concierge medicine, which charges patients a retainer fee for all medical services provided by the physician’s office. Physicians under the concierge medicine model do not accept insurance. The specific changes to the Kansas law now permit patients to be billed by an ordering concierge medicine physician for anatomic pathology services. The ordering physician must still identify the pathologist or laboratory performing the service and the amount charged for the service. In addition, the law empowers the Board of Medical Practice with authority to further regulate concierge medicine billing for such services, potentially in order to prevent markups if they deem such requirements necessary. Similar changes in Kansas’ direct billing law were negotiated in Washington State in 2012. Both Washington and Kansas regulate concierge medicine practice under a distinct set of laws.