Hospital price transparency closing in
Is your organization ready to meet the new federal requirements on hospital price transparency? The policy is set to go live on New Year’s Day, and rule writers Health and Human Services (HHS) and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) are pointedly asking as they continue to hint there will be no wiggle room for stragglers.
“Effective Jan. 1, 2021, each hospital operating in the United States is required to provide publicly accessible standard charge information online about the items and services they provide in two ways,” CMS states in a special communiqué delivered late last week through the Medicare Learning Network.
The two ways: a comprehensive machine-readable file with all items and services, and display of 300 shoppable services in a consumer-friendly format.
“If we conclude a hospital is noncompliant with one or more of the requirements to make public standard charges,” the agency warns, “we may take any of the following actions, which generally, but not necessarily, will occur in the following order:
- Provide a written warning notice to the hospital of the specific violation(s);
- Request a Corrective Action Plan (CAP) if noncompliance constitutes a material violation of one or more requirements;
- [And/or] impose a civil monetary penalty not in excess of $300 per day and publicize the penalty on a CMS website if the hospital fails to respond to our request to submit a CAP or comply with the requirements of a CAP.”
Continuing with its resistance against the federal transparency push, the American Hospital Association issued a response soon after the MLN item posted.
Read more in the American Hospital Association (AHA) statement titled “The AHA is challenging the rule in court.”
Dave P. has worked in journalism, marketing and public relations for more than 30 years, frequently concentrating on hospitals, healthcare technology and Catholic communications. He has also specialized in fundraising communications, ghostwriting for CEOs of local, national and global charities, nonprofits and foundations.