House Bill 15-94 sought to add state-level medical cost-transparency requirements for health-care facilities and impose penalties for noncompliance. Sponsors argued the bill would give consumers actionable price data and help constrain health-care costs; opponents warned the measure would create duplicative bureaucracy and could mislead consumers because actual out-of-pocket cost depends heavily on individual insurance coverage and case-specific clinical decisions.

Senator Hogan, speaking in favor, described the bill as a practical step toward giving patients better information and compared the proposal to transparency laws recently enacted in Minnesota, Texas, Colorado and other states. Hogan said better data is necessary to pursue broader reforms in health-care pricing.

Opponents, including Senator Lee and Senator Rohrs, argued the federal rules administered by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services already require hospital price disclosures and that those federal systems, implementation and reporting mechanisms should be used rather than adding a new state enforcement layer. Opponents also noted the technical complexity of hospital billing—differences between observation, outpatient and inpatient status, numerous procedural codes and insurer-negotiated rates—that can make single “sticker” prices misleading to patients.

After extended discussion and questions from members, the Senate voted 23 ayes, 22 nays, 1 absent. The bill did not pass.