Only 25% of Hospitals Are Complying with the Price Transparency Rule
February 08, 2023 – Less than a quarter of hospitals are complying with the hospital price transparency rule over two years after the regulation went into effect, according to a report from PatientRightsAdvocate.org. The Fourth Semi-Annual Hospital Price Transparency Report reflects publicly available data from 2,000 hospitals in the US. Researchers assessed the hospitals’ websites from December 10, 2022, […]
Hospitals are hiding prices from patients, advocacy report says
The hospital price transparency rule, which took effect in January 2021, requires hospitals to publish machine-readable price lists and display rates for medical services in a format that allows consumers to comparison shop. Insurers are now required to disclose rates they negotiate with providers. In the first year after the hospital rule, studies evaluating compliance […]
How America’s Hospitals Are Hiding the Cost of Health Care
America’s health care system is built upon a lack of transparency.1 In most states, it is nearly impossible for individuals and families to compare the cost of health care services and procedures like they would when shopping for gas, groceries, or housing. This intentional lack of transparency confuses consumers, hides true costs, and drives up prices.2 […]
Bigger But Not Better: Hospital Mergers Increase Costs and Do Not Improve Quality
The final verdict on hospital networks is in. Despite all of the self promoting ads in the media, hospital mergers increase costs and do not improve quality. The Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) Director of the Bureau of Economics recently stated that when hospitals merge they face less competition and charge as much 40 to 50 […]
Hospital Consolidation Continues to Boost Costs, Narrow Access, and Impact Care Quality
As hospital consolidations swept the country over the last three decades, their executives predicted the moves would produce lower costs. But decades of health services research focused on the actual results of this trend have found the opposite. Consolidation has consistently produced higher care prices. Nevertheless in 2023, health care merger mania not only continues, […]
Addressing Hospital Concentration and Rising Consolidation in the United States
The US health system in general, and the US hospital sector in particular, are largely market-based. Both public and private payers rely on competition between hospitals to drive quality. Hospitals compete with one another over prices and quality in order to attract commercially insured patients and to be included in insurers’ networks. Each year, hospitals […]
NBC News: Some workers at U.S. hospital giant HCA say it puts profits above patient care
A union study found HCA’s staffing levels were below the average for other hospitals in 19 of the 20 states where it provided care in 2020. Nancy Jaquins was following doctor’s orders last July when she drove her partner to the emergency department at Mission Hospital in Asheville, North Carolina. His hemoglobin level had crashed, […]
STAT News: Hospitals gear up to expand market power, raise prices in 2023
SAN FRANCISCO — More than a dozen of the country’s large not-for-profit hospital systems descended on this year’s J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference with a subtle but clear message for bankers and municipal investors: Higher costs in 2022 slowed them down, but they are adamant about increasing revenue by expanding their footprints and hiking prices. “Growth […]
Gallup News, Record High in U.S. Put Off Medical Care Due to Cost in 2022
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The percentage of Americans reporting they or a family member postponed medical treatment in 2022 due to cost rose 12 points in one year, to 38%, the highest in Gallup’s 22-year trend. Each year since 2001, Gallup has tracked Americans’ self-reports of delaying medical care in the past 12 months due to […]
Politico Opinion | Hospitals Are a Problem. Competition Is the Answer.
January 19, 2023 Antitrust strategies could go a long way toward reining in rising health care costs. Some things in health care are not so complicated. One rudimentary principle of economics applies in health care markets, as anywhere: When there’s less competition, prices are higher. This has been especially true for America’s hospitals, the largest […]