In January 2021, each hospital operating in the United States was required to provide clear, accessible pricing information (transparency) online about the items and services they provide to help consumers know the cost of a covered item or service before receiving care.
But according to the Patient Rights Advocate (PRA), most Florida hospitals are not compliant. The PRA just released its sixth Semi-Annual Hospital Price Transparency report, which examines 2,000 hospitals’ compliance with the Hospital Price Transparency Rule.
The report found that just 41% of hospitals in Florida are fully complying with the rule, which took effect over three years ago. This is down from 44% compliance among Florida hospitals in the last report, released in July 2023. Despite recent polling revealing that 94% of Americans support healthcare price transparency, nationally a majority of hospitals continue to flout the law.
The key findings of their report revealed:
Just 61 of 150 Florida hospitals reviewed were fully complying with the rule (41%). Nationally, only 689 of 2000 hospitals (34.5%) fully complied with the rule.
Substantial improvements since the last report include 100% of hospitals owned by Community Health Systems, 93% of hospitals owned by Christus Health, and 84% of hospitals owned by Advocate Health (Not to be confused with Advent Health) were found to be in full compliance.
Of the hospitals reviewed, none (0%) of those owned by the largest hospital systems were fully compliant (HCA Healthcare, Tenet Healthcare, Providence, Kaiser Permanente, Avera Health, UPMC, Baylor Scott & White Health, and Mercy).
While 98% of hospitals owned by Kaiser Permanente were found to be fully complying in our last report, Kaiser now posts multiple files for each hospital, instead of a single file as required by the rule, so none (0%) of Kaiser’s hospitals are now fully compliant.
Analysis for this report found more hospitals posting multiple files instead of the single file required by the rule.
“Our comprehensive study of 2,000 hospitals indicates nearly two-thirds (65.5%) of hospitals reviewed continue failing to fully comply with the rule, yet the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has only fined fourteen hospitals for noncompliance out of the thousands found to not be meeting all of the rule’s requirements. When hospitals don’t post their prices, they can charge whatever they want. We work with patients across the country who are struggling under the weight of unexpectedly high medical bills,’ said Cynthia Fisher, Founder and Chairwoman of PRA.
