The fatal flaw in hospital price transparency rules

“The Hospital Price Transparency rule celebrated its first birthday in January, and as of July 1, the enforcement of a similar requirement for payers and health plans began through the Transparency in Coverage rules,” Niall Brennan wrote at Medpage Today. “Regrettably, the U.S. is still far from achieving price transparency’s intended outcomes (more shoppable healthcare), or perhaps even understanding what the outcomes are supposed to be. Key compliance metrics vary, and indeed there is also variance in the very definition of ‘compliance,’ which has resulted in estimates ranging from as low as 6% to more than 50%, depending on how you slice the data. True ‘compliance’ means that a hospital has published price data that is both user-friendly and located prominently on their website (and yes, this includes making the information easily retrievable via search engines). By this definition, compliance is undoubtedly low since many hospitals have not created accessible resources to locate and understand their pricing. This is perhaps unsurprising as hospitals balance myriad challenges like staffing crises, COVID-19 surges, and struggles in revenue recuperation. … Hospitals that have yet to comply will not feel pressure to make changes unless additional incentives, either positive or negative, come into play. Vague requirements and a lack of repercussions have not created the sense of urgency that regulators hoped for. … While price transparency rules are well-intentioned, they suffer from a fatal flaw: too much room for interpretation in the definition of compliance. Healthcare stakeholders need to ask themselves what compliance actually entails. Are hospitals required to publish prices in well-labeled, easy-to-locate areas on their website, or can they get by in placing these numbers on a hidden page? … The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) must lay out clear rules, including what is expected and what is forbidden, and ensure they have closed any potential loopholes in the process. … Only two hospitals were fined, despite CMS sending written warnings of noncompliance to hundreds of hospitals in recent months. While these fines may get the attention of a hospital chief financial officer, we still don’t know if they will view these fines as merely a ‘cost of doing business’ — even a million dollar fine can be a rounding error on a hospital bottom line.” Niall Brennan, “The Fatal Flaw in Hospital Price Transparency Rules,” Medpage Today.