Analysis Finds Bon Secours Hospitals are Not Compliant with the Hospital Price Transparency Rule

The New York Times recently published an investigation revealing the Bon Secours hospital system is profiting off its poor patients by hollowing out Richmond Community Hospital, which primarily serves the indigent, and using this hospital to bolster its systemwide 340B revenues.

PRA finds that Bon Secours is also profiteering off all its healthcare consumers, including employers and unions, by hiding its actual prices. PRA’s Third Semi-Annual Hospital Price Transparency Compliance Report, published in August, concludes that none of the 33 Bon Secours hospitals examined, including Richmond Community Hospital, are complying with the hospital price transparency rule that took effect January 1, 2021. Specifically, Bon Secours does not post all its negotiated health insurance prices by plan, as the rule requires.

Bon Secours’ price obfuscation prevents patients from comparing hospital prices, avoiding price gouging, and identifying fair-market alternatives. It enables Bon Secours to overcharge, upcode, and profit from patients’ misery. Robust federal enforcement of the hospital price transparency rule is urgently needed to flip this power imbalance, hold hospitals like Bon Secours accountable, and empower healthcare consumers to enjoy substantial healthcare savings through choice and competition.

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