Illinois anti-markup bill passes House

The Illinois House last week passed SB1630, a bill that will prohibit referring physicians from marking up anatomic pathology charges. The Senate had already passed the bill 51-4. If signed by Illinois Governor Pat Quinn (D), referring physicians would still be able to client bill for pathology services if they want to, but they would no longer be able to unethically profit by marking up charges for pathology services. If they choose to continue client billing, they would be required to disclose to patients precisely how much they are paying the outside laboratory, and would only be allowed to tack on a small specimen collection and processing charge, so long as it is charged in conformance with AMA coding policies.