New Detailed Report Shows only 5.6% of Hospitals Examined are Compliant with Hospital Price Transparency Rule

 CONTACT:  Press@PatientRightsAdvocate.org 

The semi-annual report issued by PatientRightsAdvocate.org is the FIRST detailed look at hospital compliance by name and by requirement

WASHINGTON, July 16, 2021-- Today, PatientRightsAdvocate.org released a report on 500 randomly sampled hospitals from across the United States, assessing their compliance with a price transparency rule that President Biden’s Executive Order, signed July 9, directs the Department of Health and Human Services to support.

Although the rule went into effect on Jan. 1, 2021, a majority of hospitals have yet to fully comply with the rule. PatientRightsAdvocate.org’s analysis of 500 randomly selected hospitals across the country found that they were largely non-compliant with the price transparency rule.  In fact:

• 471 hospitals (94.4% of the 500) failed to comply with the rule, or just 5.6% are compliant.

• 403 hospitals (80.6% of the 500) did not publish payer-specific negotiated charges “clearly associated with the names of each third-party payer and plan” as required by the rule.

• 258 hospitals (51.6% of the 500) did not publish any negotiated rates at all.

• 198 hospitals (39.6% of the 500) did not publish any discounted cash prices. 

"Though it has been six months since the price transparency rule came into effect, the number of hospitals that fall short of compliance is shocking,” said Cynthia Fisher, founder and chairman of PatientsRightsAdvocate.org. “The widespread non-compliance uncovered in our study makes it clear that stronger penalties and robust enforcement are needed.”

A survey commissioned by PatientRightsAdvocate.org and performed by John Della Volpe of SocialSphere examined attitudes toward various aspects of healthcare reform.  The poll reinforced the importance of healthcare costs to American consumers and revealed a high level of support for government action to establish and enforce price transparency measures.  Specifically, the survey showed that:   

• 85% of Americans believe that cutting costs and improving quality by making healthcare prices, quality metrics prices, quality metrics, and outcomes more transparent should be a priority for lawmakers.

• 82% Americans support the federal government requiring hospitals to make their prices readily available to the public.

• 77% support increasing the penalty for hospitals who do not comply from $300 per hospital per day fine to $300 per hospital bed per day. 

• 56% of adults feel like they, or a close family member were overcharged when seeking medical care.

Based on its research, and backed by the White House’s action and public sentiment that overwhelmingly supports further action to empower consumers and encourage competition in the healthcare sector, PatientRightsAdvocate.org recommends:

• Stricter and higher penalties for noncompliance along with robust enforcement of the rule.

• Simple, actionable pricing data standards to unleash all actual price information to consumers, technology innovators, and search engines to usher in online shopping tools.

• The posting of all actual and complete prices of shoppable services (actual prices, not estimates) at both the discounted and negotiated prices.

• Advance notification and posting of prices at point of care, as well as online, to ensure consumers have access to pricing data.

“The Hospital Price Transparency rule has the potential to shift the power away from hospitals and into the hands of consumers – meaning patients, employers and union sponsored plans. If hospitals comply, the transparency rule will drive down the cost of care and coverage,” said Fisher. “Our polling shows the American people want transparency, and our report shows that even after six months hospitals are ignoring the demands of their patients and still not sharing their prices. As President Biden said, “capitalism without competition isn’t capitalism. It’s exploitation,” and that is exactly what hospitals are doing to American consumers by obfuscating prices and refusing to comply with the price transparency rule.”

Review the report here.

Read the polling results here.