PatientRightsAdvocate.org Statement on Turquoise Health’s MRF Tracker
Washington, D.C. – Today, PatientRightsAdvocate.org (PRA) released a statement on the findings of the new machine-readable file (MRF) tracker by Turquoise Health that tracks real-time hospital compliance with the federal hospital price transparency rule.
“We applaud Turquoise Health for creating a live tracker showing hospital compliance with the Hospital Price Transparency Rule. Unfortunately, much like our semi-annual compliance reports, their data show alarmingly low rates of full compliance with the hospital price transparency requirements,” said PatientRightsAdvocate.org Founder and Chairman Cynthia Fisher. “Despite the rules being in effect for more than three years, all healthcare consumers are harmed by a lack of access to real upfront prices. With three-quarters of hospitals failing to pass CMS’s validator tool, which by their admission does not constitute compliance with transparency requirements, it is clear that lackluster enforcement of hospital price transparency rules by CMS has enabled hospitals to maintain unacceptably low rates of compliance. Increased enforcement, including fines, and the passage of robust legislation to codify and strengthen these rules are necessary to bring more hospitals into full compliance and protect patients from overcharges, errors, and even fraud in medical billing.”
Background:
According to the Turquoise tracker, only 16.7% of hospitals nationwide comply with the latest form and structure requirements that pass the CMS validator tool (which does not assess the accuracy of the data) and post a compliant text file.
Of the MRFs analyzed by Turquoise, half post the data necessary to be considered fully compliant with the price transparency rules.
PRA’s sixth Semi-Annual Hospital Price Transparency Compliance Report revealed just 34.5% of hospitals surveyed were in full compliance with the federal hospital price transparency rule.
PRA will release a new compliance report this fall that will analyze both the updated form and structure requirements and assess the accuracy and integrity of the data included in each file.
PRA continues to lead in the fight for healthcare price transparency. At the end of last year, PRA released the Hospital Price Files Finder, which was the first-ever free and publicly available search tool that allows consumers to view the available hospital pricing files from nearly all 6,000 hospitals throughout the U.S.
A bipartisan group of U.S. Senators introduced a bill to strengthen and expand healthcare price transparency requirements (S.3548). The Senate bill is the most impactful piece of legislation to ensure healthcare consumers have access to all upfront prices and receipts to provide remedy and recourse for overcharges and errors on medical bills.