A new report by HHS’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) finds widespread failure among hospitals to comply with federal price transparency law.
What they’re saying: “An HHS inspector general's report found that almost half of 100 surveyed hospitals weren't fully complying with CMS' hospital price transparency rule,” Axios reports.
- “Many hospitals are not publishing their prices in accordance with the price transparency law, a federal watchdog's new report found … Some hospitals have said they'd rather pay the fines than comply with the law,” Modern Healthcare reports.
Why it matters: With health care spending projected to account for almost 20% of the American economy by 2027, “Congress designed the 2021 law to help consumers and researchers use pricing data to slow health care cost growth,” Modern Healthcare notes.
- With hospital costs now accounting for over 40 cents of every dollar Americans pay for health care premiums, health plans are using all the tools at their disposal to shield Americans from soaring hospital costs while providing access to high-quality health care as affordably as possible.
The bottom line: Hospitals’ opaque pricing and billing practices continue to harm Americans’ access to affordable care.
- Bipartisan site-neutral reforms are needed to address hospitals’ opaque billing practices.
Go deeper: Read the full OIG report, and learn more about where Americans’ commercial health care premiums go.