Hospitals at large are failing at price transparency

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Last week, members of the Subcommittee on Health sent the US Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra a letter, urging the agency to enforce compliance for the Hospital Price Transparency Final Rule, which went into effect on January 2021.

The rules requires hospitals to make available to the public a machine-readable list for all standard charges for items and services and to display an easy-to-read list for the most shoppable health care services for patients.

But, hospital compliance to the rule currently looks lacking.

The letter cites a Health Affairs study that found 65 of the 100 largest hospitals were "unambiguously non-compliant" between January 2021 to early February 2021. In addition, in April 2021 the Wall Street Journal reported that some hospitals hide pricing data from online search results. 

Listen to Health Affairs' Leslie Erdelack and Rob Lott discuss the latest on the Hospital Price Transparency Final Rule and what impacts it may have on hospitals and patients.

Related Links:

• Low Compliance From Big Hospitals On CMS's Hospital Price Transparency Rule (Health Affairs Blog)
• New Year, New CMS Price Transparency Rule For Hospitals (Health Affairs Blog)
• Hospitals Hide Pricing Data From Search Results (Wall Street Journal)
• Early Results From Federal Price Transparency Rule Show Difficulty In Estimating The Cost Of Care (Kaiser Family Foundation)

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Subscribe to UnitedHealthcare's Community & State newsletter.