A key Senate committee has removed two major provisions from a bill that forced lawmakers to explore how much insurance companies pay hospitals in relation to independent practices.

The Senate Health and Welfare Committee stripped down major provisions of S.245. The original version of the bill would have required state officials to closely monitor hospitals’ acquisitions of independent practices, to weed out anti-competitive actions. It also would have required the administration to study the disappearance of independent practices.

S.245 met pushback from the Vermont Association of Hospitals and Health Systems. HealthFirst, a nonprofit organization that represents independent doctors, supported the bill but offered small amendments.

The Green Mountain Care Board said it would turn to the attorney general’s office if it received a complaint about anti-competitive practices. The AG’s office said individual complaints would be more effective than the original bill. And the Shumlin administration said a study would take hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Jill Olson, a vice president and co-interim executive officer at the hospital association, said Tuesday that she sought changes to the bill for logistical reasons, not because she opposed the concept of patient notification.

The current version of the bill, which could be passed out of committee this week, would require hospitals to send notification letters to patients no more than 30 days after acquiring independent practices.

The letter would disclose the hospital’s name and contact information. It would warn the patient that the change in ownership could affect out-of-pocket costs for procedures. It would advise patients to call their insurance companies to understand how much out-of-pocket costs would change.

Such letters would go to anyone who was a patient at the practice within the previous three years. The law would be effective July 1.