This year, the federal government ordered hospitals to begin publishing a prized secret: a complete list of the prices they negotiate with private insurers. The insurers’ trade association had called the rule unconstitutional and said it would “undermine competitive negotiations.” Four hospital associations jointly sued the government to block it, and appealed when they lost. […]

The Medicare agency is giving hospitals time to adjust to its price transparency rule, so far refraining from penalizing providers despite recently proposing to increase sanctions for those that don’t comply. Hospitals have been apprehensive since the Trump administration announced they would be required to disclose standard charges for items and services in a final rule (RIN 0938–AU22) published […]

Most U.S. hospitals are not complying with federal regulations requiring medical centers to post their prices online for patients to review, according to a new report by patient advocates. The report, which surveyed the websites of 500 of the roughly 6,000 hospitals subject to the rule, found that 471 of the hospitals did not fully post the […]

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce sued HHS and other agencies in Texas federal court to stop their implementation of a new insurance price transparency provision finalized in the waning days of the Trump administration. The Health and Human Services Department and others exceeded their statutory authority by adopting a provision that allegedly will cost over […]

Medicare wants to pay acute care hospitals 2.3%—or nearly $10.8 billion—more for outpatient services next year, the Biden administration announced Monday. The proposed rule (RIN 0938-AU43) from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services would also increase the penalty for hospitals that don’t comply with the hospital price transparency final rule. The agency is proposing a minimum penalty […]

President Biden is putting his foot down on a price transparency rule that many hospitals have skirted over the past seven months. On Friday, Biden released an executive order instructing the Secretary of Health and Human Services to “support” price transparency regulations issued by the Trump administration. Starting on Jan. 1, hospitals were required to post the […]

More than 90% of Americans are unaware of a CMS rule allowing patients to view and compare treatment costs on hospital websites so they can shop for lower priced care, according to a recent Kaiser Family Foundation survey. While only 9% of seniors have researched treatment prices online, they are more likely to know about […]