More than 500 hospitals nationwide have received letters notifying them that they are not in compliance with the Trump administration's price disclosure requirements. Failure to comply could result in penalties as high as $2 million annually for each recipient that doesn't create a plan to post clear pricing data, the Associated Press reported.
The intent of the letters is enable patients, employers and insurers to know in advance the cost of blood work, imaging tests or other forms to treatment to avoid paying more than they should. The administration plans to tighten enforcement of price transparency standards made possible by a 2019 executive order signed by President Trump, a senior official told AP, adding that more hospitals are likely to receive letters.
Forty-two Texas hospitals received warnings, which is the most of any state. This includes Baptist Medical Center in San Antonio, one of the state's largest hospitals with 1,585 beds, and the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. Substantial numbers of hospitals in both red and blue states received letters. The Republican state of Indiana had 34 hospitals that received letters, which is nearly as many as the 38 in Democratic-led California.
The House Committee on Energy and Commerce has scheduled a hearing about price transparency in health care for Wednesday. "Transparency is the foundation of a health care system that rewards competition based on cost and quality," CEO Shawn Gremminger of the National Alliance of Healthcare Purchaser Coalitions is expected to say in prepared remarks.
Gary Claxton, senior vice president and director of the program on the health care marketplace at KFF, said pricing information is more useful for benefit consultants and others in the sector than it is for consumers.
"There's a pretty widespread belief that prices are more divergent than they should be in a competitive market," he said, "and this is one way of trying to understand that more. It's moving in the right direction, but that doesn't mean it has gotten to where it needs to be."
Health care affordability is expected to be a critical issue in the upcoming midterm elections. Just 3 in 10 U.S. adults currently approve of the administration's health care policies, according to the latest Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
AP compiled a state-by-state list of hospitals that received notices that is available at Hospitals warned about providing more pricing information.
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