Boston Herald Runs PRA Op-Ed Highlighting Self-Serving Hospital Industry Opposition to Price Transparency

The Boston Herald ran a PRA op-ed discussing how the hospital industry’s opposition to pro-patient reforms like price transparency is merely their attempt to continue profiteering off patients’ misfortune. The op-ed explains:

To maximize profits, hospitals and private-equity-owned physician practices such as Blackstone-owned TeamHealth often work in cahoots to overcharge out-of-network consumers far higher than any insurance negotiated rate. According to NBC News, TeamHealth and Envision Healthcare, owned by another private-equity giant, provide staffing for approximately one-third of the nation’s emergency rooms. As a result of their pricing practices, patients are routinely left with enormous balances, medical debt and subject to ruinous lawsuits.

Unfortunately, the surprise billing rule only offers patients a degree of protection from the predatory American health care billing system, whose hidden prices mean that almost every bill is still a surprise. Health care consumers, including patients, unions and employers, are regularly blinded to prices then blindsided by enormous bills that arrive in the mail weeks and months later.

This price opacity enables hospitals to extract unreasonable profits by allowing them to price gouge and erroneously or fraudulently bill without consequences. According to research published in Axios, this pricing power lets hospitals upcharge an average of seven times their cost of care. The Los Angeles Times recently reported on leaked hospital billing practices showing automatic markups of 675%.

Many hospital systems earned record profits in 2020 despite claims the COVID-19 pandemic would have a negative financial impact. Adding insult: Hospitals lobbied for and received significant corporate welfare last year from taxpayers via COVID-19-related relief legislation that bolstered their profits.

So it smacks of self-serving when the private-equity-backed physician groups and the hospital industry oppose commonsense reforms like this surprise billing rule and price transparency….

Ignore the industry opposition to these pro-patients rules. It is merely an attempt to keep the gravy train rolling.

Read the full op-ed in the Boston Herald.