Justin Allen: For HB 1204
by February 2, 2025 1:43 pm 556 views

HB 1204 simply states that, when it comes to past medical bills, the plaintiff recovers from the defendant what the healthcare provider accepted as full and final payment. Not the sticker price.
Representative Matt Brown, R-Conway, in speaking for HB 1204, provided a good analogy. The price tag on a shirt at the clothing store may show a price of $100. But, inevitably, it will be marked down to $60 and, on most days, there will be some sort of sale where it costs only $40. If you buy that shirt for $40, but decide to return it the next day, would you expect to get back $100? Of course not.
A plaintiff may seek to recover money for several different types of damages. Examples include medical bills, past and future, lost wages, past and future, and pain and suffering. If a case isn’t settled, a jury ultimately determines the amount of recovery for each category.
HB 1204 does not impact any other type of damages. Future medical bills, lost wages and pain and suffering will continue to be evaluated and awarded in the same manner. Again, this bill will simply allow the plaintiff to recover what was actually paid to the healthcare provider.
In today’s world, when it comes to medical bills, those are often discounted such that the healthcare provider accepts something significantly less than what was reflected on the initial bill.
In addressing a law very similar to HB 1204, the Texas Supreme Court stated:
“A hospital’s regular rates, full charges, or list prices are generally at least double and may be up to eight times what the hospital would accept as payment in full for the same services from Medicare, Medicaid, HMO’s or private insurers. The labels for these charges, regular, full or list are misleading, because in fact they are actually paid by less than five percent of patients nationally.”
A person injured through the fault of another should be able to recover. Under our civil justice system, that person should be made whole, or put back in the same position as before the accident. HB1204 reflects that policy by setting the recovery for past medical services at what was actually paid and accepted. This makes good sense and is the policy adopted by approximately half of the states.
The Arkansas jury instruction on damages for medical bills provides for the recovery of “[t]he reasonable expense of any necessary medical care treatment and services received…”
What could be a more reasonable recovery than what was accepted as full and final payment?
Editor’s note: Justin Allen is an attorney with Little Rock-based Wright Lindsey Jennings. The opinions expressed are those of the author.