Report Shows Only a Few Hospitals in the US Are Complying With Federal Price Transparency Laws
A new report from PatientRightsAdvocate.org finds that only about 14% of hospitals are currently in compliance with federal price transparency regulations.
This January marked one year since the Hospital Price Transparency rule went into effect. The rule is an Affordable Care Act provision that requires hospitals to publish their standard charges by posting their actual prices, including discounted cash and secret contracted rates, so patients can shop for the best quality care at the lowest prices.
Last year, President Joe Biden issued an executive order to promote competition in the American economy by increasing penalties for hospitals who fail to comply with health care transparency rules.
In November, Biden pushed enforcement by increasing penalties for noncompliant hospitals, in some cases to as much as $2 million.
The report shows that one year since the rule went into effect only two out of 361 hospitals owned by three of the largest hospital systems — HCA Healthcare, CommonSpirit Health and Ascension — were compliant with the rule.
In 2021, the combined total revenue of these three hospital systems approached $120 billion and the estimated cost of compliance calculated by the rule was only $12,000 per hospital.
The report also shows that none of the 188 hospitals under HCA Healthcare, the largest for-profit hospital system in the country, were compliant with the rule.
In a letter to President Biden to discuss the report, members from the advocacy group write that the results show a small increase of only 8% in compliance rates from a previous study conducted more than six months ago. The letter requests that further action be taken by the administration to enforce the price transparency rule and ensure hospitals are compliant.
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