---
type: "Bill"
title: "Health care: fair billing policies."
description: "(1) Existing law requires a hospital, as defined, to maintain an understandable written policy regarding discount payments for financially qualified patients as well as a written charity care policy, and authorizes a hospital to negotiate the terms of a payment plan with a patient. Existing law requires that uninsured patients or patients with high medical costs who are at or below 350% of the federal poverty level be eligible for charity care or a discount payment policy from a hospital, as specified, and requires that specified patients be eligible for discount payments to an emergency physician. Existing law defines a patient with high medical costs as a person whose family income does not exceed 350% of the federal poverty level and who does not receive a discounted rate from the hospital or physician as a result of his or her 3rd-party coverage."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
legislature: "California Legislature"
session: "20132014"
identifier: "SB 1276"
citation: "California SB 1276 (20132014)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Health care: fair billing policies."]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Hernandez"]
version_count: 6
action_count: 22
vote_count: 5
first_action: "2014-02-21"
last_action: "2014-09-28"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/3341c1ba-66c8-4ef4-805f-7ad11fce1edb"
source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201320140SB1276"
source_hash: "5b97b3850e3dc5f72ce0969010a817ada182914f322b660300f3ed749873290f"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-ca"]
---

# California SB 1276 (20132014) — Health care: fair billing policies.

(1) Existing law requires a hospital, as defined, to maintain an understandable written policy regarding discount payments for financially qualified patients as well as a written charity care policy, and authorizes a hospital to negotiate the terms of a payment plan with a patient. Existing law requires that uninsured patients or patients with high medical costs who are at or below 350% of the federal poverty level be eligible for charity care or a discount payment policy from a hospital, as specified, and requires that specified patients be eligible for discount payments to an emergency physician. Existing law defines a patient with high medical costs as a person whose family income does not exceed 350% of the federal poverty level and who does not receive a discounted rate from the hospital or physician as a result of his or her 3rd-party coverage.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **02/21/14 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201320140SB1276&version=20130SB127699INT)
2. **05/22/14 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201320140SB1276&version=20130SB127698AMD)
3. **06/26/14 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201320140SB1276&version=20130SB127697AMD)
4. **09/28/14 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201320140SB1276&version=20130SB127695CHP)
5. **SB1276** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201320140SB1276)
6. **08/15/14 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201320140SB1276&version=20130SB127696ENR)

## Votes

- Do pass. — **5–2** (pass) · upper
- Do pass as amended. — **14–4** (pass) · lower
- 3rd Reading — **23–10** (pass) · upper
- SB 1276 Hernandez Senate Third Reading By WIECKOWSKI — **54–22** (pass) · lower
- Unfinished Business SB1276 Hernandez Concurrence — **24–11** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Hernandez — primary (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2014-02-21** Introduced. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. To print. `introduction`
- **2014-02-22** From printer. May be acted upon on or after March 24.
- **2014-02-24** Read first time. `reading-1`
- **2014-03-06** Referred to Com. on HEALTH. `referral-committee`
- **2014-03-27** Set for hearing April 9.
- **2014-04-10** From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 5. Noes 2. Page 3162.) (April 9). `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2014-04-21** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2014-05-22** Read third time and amended. `reading-3, reading-1, amendment-passage`
- **2014-05-22** Ordered to second reading.
- **2014-05-23** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2014-05-27** Read third time. Passed. (Ayes 23. Noes 10. Page 3594.) Ordered to the Assembly. `reading-3, reading-1, passage`
- **2014-05-28** In Assembly. Read first time. Held at Desk. `reading-1`
- **2014-06-02** Referred to Com. on HEALTH. `referral-committee`
- **2014-06-25** From committee: Do pass as amended. (Ayes 14. Noes 4.) (June 24). `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage, amendment-passage`
- **2014-06-26** Read second time and amended. Ordered to second reading. `reading-2, reading-1, amendment-passage`
- **2014-06-30** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2014-08-11** Read third time. Passed. (Ayes 54. Noes 22. Page 5965.) Ordered to the Senate. `reading-3, reading-1, passage`
- **2014-08-11** In Senate. Concurrence in Assembly amendments pending.
- **2014-08-13** Assembly amendments concurred in. (Ayes 24. Noes 11. Page 4474.) Ordered to engrossing and enrolling. `committee-passage-favorable, amendment-passage`
- **2014-08-18** Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 3 p.m.
- **2014-09-28** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
- **2014-09-28** Chaptered by Secretary of State. Chapter 758, Statutes of 2014.

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/3341c1ba-66c8-4ef4-805f-7ad11fce1edb`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).