Sec. 1. 24-A MRSA §4301-A, sub-§§15-A and 16-A are enacted to read:

15-A.__Price list.__"Price list" means a document that describes each service offered by a provider or the provider's employer and that for each such service states:

A.__The price charged by the provider or the provider's employer;

B.__The lowest reimbursement from a nonpublic source applicable as of January 1, 2004 to which the provider or the provider's employer has agreed; and

C.__The lowest reimbursement from a nonpublic source that the provider or the provider's employer has accepted within the preceding 90 days.

16-A.__Reimbursement.__"Reimbursement" means the total financial payment to a provider for a specific service accepted or agreed to, including any payments made or to be made to fulfill a copayment or deductible requirement or any other form of financial payment by the patient.

Sec. 2. 24-A MRSA §§4306-A, 4306-B and 4306-C are enacted to read:

§4306-A.__Price list required

Effective January 1, 2004, each provider shall publish a price list.__The price list must be published in a format that allows a person with a 6th-grade reading level, as determined by a recognized instrument for measuring adult literacy levels, to understand the nature and purpose of each service or variation thereof.__The price list must be made available to patients or customers at the initial visit to a provider and at any other time upon request.__The price list must be published on a publicly accessible site on the Internet maintained by a provider or the provider's employer.__The price list must be updated and published every 6 months.

§4306-B.__Price information for hospital stay

1.__Required.__Effective January 1, 2004, each hospital shall include in its price list information set forth in section 4301-A, subsection 15 for all charges from that hospital that arose, from admission through discharge, for an admission scheduled for the 3 most frequently occurring variations under the International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision,