I will soon be introducing legislation titled the Patient Right-to-Understand Act. This bill will ensure that every patient in Pennsylvania can clearly understand their healthcare coverage, costs, and options before making medical decisions.

Across our Commonwealth, patients routinely receive complex, technical, and confusing information about their care. Prior authorization rules, coverage limitations, billing practices, and appeal procedures are often communicated in dense legal language that prevents real understanding. Too often, patients are left asking three basic questions:
-How much will this cost?
-Do I really need this?
-Is this decision truly being made within the trusted doctor-patient relationship?

This legislation recognizes that informed decision-making requires clarity, transparency, and accessibility. It directs healthcare entities to provide concise, plain-language summaries of coverage, costs, and patient rights so individuals and families can fully understand their financial responsibilities and available options before care begins. The bill also reinforces the critical distinction between insurance coverage decisions and the medical decisions that belong solely between a patient and their physician.

By promoting clear communication and greater transparency, this bill empowers patients, supports employers and purchasers, and helps restore trust in both the doctor-patient relationship and our healthcare system as a whole.

I hope you will join me in co-sponsoring this important legislation as we work together to advance meaningful, patient-centered reform and stronger consumer protections in Pennsylvania.