Report: Only 14.3% of hospitals comply with 2021 price transparency rule

Editor's Note

According to Healthcare Purchasing News (HPN), a new report published by PatientRightsAdvocate.org shows that the majority of hospitals continue to not disclose the cost of care from consumers one year after an Executive Order requiring hospitals to post their real prices went into effect.

The “Semi-Annual Hospital Price Transparency Compliance Report” finds that only 14.3% of 1,000 randomly selected hospitals are complying with the price transparency rule, which went into effect on January 1, 2021, and was re-enforced by the Biden Administration in July 2021. This report follows the first Semi-Annual Hospital Price Transparency Compliance Report released in July 2021, which found that only 5.6% out of 500 randomly selected hospitals were compliant with the rule.

“The Transparency in Coverage Rule, which will become law in July 2022, will require group health plans and health insurance issuers to publicly disclose negotiated prices for all covered items and services and historical payments, and disclose cost-sharing information upon request to a participant, beneficiary, or enrollee,” HPN reports.

The report also finds that only 2 of the 361 hospitals owned by three of the largest hospital systems—HCA Healthcare, Ascension, and CommonSpirit Health—were compliant with the rule. In the case of HCA Healthcare, none of its 188 hospitals were compliant.