(a) A general acute care hospital shall notify each patient scheduled for a service in a hospital-based outpatient clinic when that service is available in another location that is not hospital-based. The notification shall be in substantially the following form:

The location where you are being scheduled to receive services is a hospital-based clinic, and, therefore, may have higher costs. The same service may be available at another location within our health system that is not hospital-based, which may cost less. Check with the [insert name of office] at [insert telephone number] for another location within our health system, or check with your health insurance company, for more information about other locations that may cost less.

(b) For purposes of this section, a “hospital-based outpatient clinic” means a department of a provider, as defined in Section 413.65(a)(2) of Title 42 of the Code of Federal Regulations, that is not located on the campus of that provider.

(c) This section shall not apply to a general acute care hospital operated by a nonprofit corporation under common control with a nonprofit health care service plan licensed pursuant to the Knox-Keene Health Care Service Plan Act of 1975 (Chapter 2.2 (commencing with Section 1340) of Division 2) that exclusively contracts with no more than two medical groups in the state to provide and arrange for medical services for the enrollees of the health care service plan, so long as the cost-sharing design does not vary based on whether the care is provided in a hospital-based clinic or a medical office building.

(Added by Stats. 2016, Ch. 501, Sec. 1. (SB 1365) Effective January 1, 2017.)