Most hospitals aren't complying with federal price transparency rules that went into effect January 2021, with few consequences, according to the Fourth Semi-Annual Hospital Price Transparency Report from the PatientRightsAdvocate.org.
The report, issued Feb. 6, shows 24.5 percent of hospitals are compliant among the 2,000 hospitals reviewed. Most of the hospitals had files posted, but three-quarters of the noncompliant hospitals had issues such as incomplete files or prices not clearly associated with the payer and plan, according to the report.
Around 75 percent of the largest health systems in the U.S. are noncompliant; all of the 173 reviewed HCA Healthcare hospitals were noncompliant. Ascension had 4 percent of hospitals compliant and CommonSpirit had 58 percent compliant.
HHS has only penalized two hospitals for noncompliance.
The ASC industry was largely supportive of hospital price transparency, since hospital charges are typically higher than independent surgery centers. ASCs aren't currently required to share prices or charge data, but some choose to publish prices to attract self-pay patients and individuals with high-deductible health plans.