The organization, which advocates for price transparency for consumers, compared 20 price disclosures made by hospitals and health insurers. The group found several instances where prices that appeared in payer disclosures were omitted from the hospitals’ disclosures.
“This concrete evidence from the insurance files demonstrates that real prices exist and hospitals are flouting the hospital price transparency rule,” Patients Rights Advocate said in the report.
The report examined some of the country’s largest hospital systems, including Nashville, Tenn.-based HCA Healthcare and St. Louis-based Ascension.
Laws requiring hospitals to disclose negotiated prices with payers went into effect in January 2021. So far, compliance with these laws has been low.
An August report from Patients Rights Advocate found compliance rates ranged from 34 percent of hospitals in Arizona to 0 percent of hospitals in multiple states.
Laws requiring health insurers to disclose negotiated rates took effect in July.
Read the full report here.
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