Seven CT hospitals warned about price transparency
Over 500 US hospitals, including seven in Connecticut, received warnings regarding compliance with 2019 price transparency requirements, according to the Associated Press. The requirements were designed to make care more affordable. The President is reportedly planning to ramp up enforcement of the federal transparency rule and more hospitals may receive warnings.
Since 2019, many hospitals have not fully complied with the rule. In 2021, only half of Connecticut hospitals were compliant.
The seven Connecticut hospitals warned since April are:
- Connecticut Behavioral Health Hospital, West Hartford
- Received a request for a Corrective Action Plan
- Day Kimball Hospital, Putnam
- Received a request for a Corrective Action Plan
- Gaylord Hospital, Wallingford
- Received a request for a Corrective Action Plan
- Manchester Memorial Hospital, Manchester
- Received a warning notice
- Rockville General Hospital, Vernon
- Received a warning notice
- The Connecticut Hospice, Branford
- Received a request for a Corrective Action Plan
- Waterbury Hospital, Waterbury
- Received a warning notice
In 2019, during his first term, President Trump signed an Executive Order requiring hospitals to publicly disclose the negotiated rates they pay each insurer for services and their discounted cash prices. The federal rule implementing the Executive Order covers 300 “shoppable” services, those that patients can shop and compare prices for. The rule also requires the disclosures to be in a “consumer-friendly” format and to give patients estimates of their out-of-pocket costs before the service.
The purpose of the order is to “enhance the ability of patients to choose the healthcare that is best for them. To make fully informed decisions about their healthcare, patients must know the price and quality of a good or service in advance. With the predominant role that third-party payers and Government programs play in the American healthcare system, however, patients often lack both access to useful price and quality information and the incentives to find low-cost, high-quality care. Opaque pricing structures may benefit powerful special interest groups, such as large hospital systems and insurance companies, but they generally leave patients and taxpayers worse off than would a more transparent system.”