Biden Ignores Trump's Hospital Policies
Many of America's largest hospitals are set to raise prices by 15%, far above the already high rate of inflation. The Trump administration issued a hospital price transparency rule in 2019 to help families combat such increases and find quality care — but Biden's team has not enforced the policy. It requires each hospital to provide complete and easily accessible pricing information, including prices negotiated by insurance companies, as well as a menu of services in a customer-friendly format. With this information in hand, families can choose the most affordable services, which encourages hospitals to lower prices further to attract more patients.
It's therefore concerning that only one in three hospitals - 37% - offer price transparency. In Maryland, only 5% of hospitals comply with this rule, and in 12 states and the District of Columbia, less than 30%. This includes New York, where only 28% of hospitals comply with this rule, which is more than 6400 hospitals. Additionally, a large number of hospitals that technically comply with the rule use special site coding that intentionally prevents patients from finding their supposedly "public" price lists, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Millions of families will soon be forced to pay larger bills when they should be able to lower health care prices. That's the conclusion of a new report from the Foundation for Government Accountability.
Why do so many hospitals stubbornly refuse to be transparent? For the same reason that the American Hospital Association lobbied so hard against this rule and tried to block its implementation. Hospitals fear that publicizing their prices will cut into their profits.
No one would agree with gas stations listing the price per gallon after filling up or real estate agents disclosing prices for home purchases after closing. If even a fraction of gas stations or real estate agents did this, Americans would be furious. However, there is no such noise in healthcare because transparency continues to be suppressed. Notably, the worst offenders are the nation's largest hospital systems, from California to Washington.
Yet no hospital, large or small, should go unpunished for non-compliance. The only reason it succeeds is the almost complete lack of federal oversight. Although the CDC sent warning letters to various hospitals threatening more warnings, the agency only issued its first fines this summer, fining two Georgia hospitals. A $1,1 million fine is less than 0,1% of annual revenue, and according to the latest CMS guidelines, the maximum fine for a full year of non-compliance ranges from $109 for a small hospital to just over $500 million for a large one. Although this amount may seem significant, it is not. Hospitals that make billions of dollars a year can likely make more money by hiding and artificially inflating prices than they will lose from fines for non-compliance.
The courts should force the Biden administration to disclose why they are not addressing this issue. Americans deserve price transparency from hospitals, especially now when health care costs look set to rise well above inflation.
