CMS issued no additional warning notices to hospitals noncompliant with its price transparency regulations in April, CMS told Becker's. About 345 notices have been sent to hospitals since the rule went into effect Jan. 1, 2021.
CMS has the authority to request a corrective action plan if it finds a hospital is not compliant with one or more of the requirements of the rule designed to inform patients what a hospital charges for items and services it provides. CMS can issue a civil monetary penalty if a hospital does not respond to its request.
No additional corrective action plan requests have been issued since March, according to CMS. The agency has made 136 corrective action plan requests to hospitals since Jan. 1, 2021. Hospitals are asked for corrective action plans when they receive warning notices but haven't made corrections.
Since the rule went into effect, 145 hospitals have had their cases closed after they addressed citations, CMS said. This is up from March, when CMS had issued 124 case closure notices.
Because each hospital that has been under review has corrected its price transparency issues or is in the process of doing so, CMS has not issued any penalties. The maximum penalty for noncompliance is $2 million.
CMS will publicly name hospitals that have received monetary penalties on its website. Those that have only received notices will not be named, CMS said.
"Releasing this information prematurely could identify hospitals that have already taken corrective actions and come into compliance after issuance of a warning notice," the agency said.