A recent audit by the Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services found that 2,711 out of 5,879 hospitals still aren’t complying with price transparency regulations.
That’s nearly half of all hospitals.
That means patients across the country are still intentionally being kept in the dark about the prices of their medical procedures.
This is no small misstep. Medical debt is one of the leading causes of bankruptcy in the United States. And people have a right to know the price of something before they buy it. When patients know how much a medical service is going to cost, prices stay honest. When the price tags are hidden, patients can face an extreme range of costs that range from reasonable to ruinous—sometimes for the exact same procedure.
It’s interesting that this audit came about due to “concerns” the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) had about increasing health care spending. After all, this same CMS ignored hospital price transparency violations for the past three years, allowing special interests and shareholders to keep prices secret, and then stonewalled investigation attempts.
The first Trump administration gave Americans price transparency and the hope for lower medical prices. Let’s hope a second gives them enforcement.
Congress can help in this effort by strengthening and codifying the Trump price transparency rule. Patients shouldn’t be kept in the dark any longer.
