There are reports that generally do not abide by the federal hospital price transparency rules, and the Medicare and Medicaid Service Centers are Impose severe penalties.
Included in the proposed rules for the hospital outpatient payment system and the ASC payment system in 2022, hospitals found to ignore the final rules on price transparency may be fined between US$109.5 and US$2 million per year per hospital.
The agency proposes a minimum fine of US$300 per day, applicable to hospitals with 30 or fewer beds; hospitals with more than 30 beds have a fine of US$10 per bed per day. For the latter, CMS will establish a daily dollar amount of up to $5,500.
in spite of Strike back strongly From the perspective of provider groups, the final rule on hospital price transparency came into effect on January 1. The rule requires hospitals to provide pricing information in two ways-including the price negotiated with the payer. First, as a machine-readable file containing all items and services, and second, as a display of shopable services in a consumer-friendly format.
However, some studies and surveys show that there is a lack of compliance with the rules. recent, Washington post The survey results published by the patient advocacy organization showed that 471 of the 500 hospitals studied were not compliant.
The government’s goal is to promote compliance with its new proposed fines.
“No medical entity should suppress competition at the expense of patients,” said HHS Minister Xavier Becerra. In the press release“I have fought anti-competitive practices before and firmly believe that health care must be provided for everyone. According to the rules proposed today, we are only showing hospitals through harsher penalties: this government will not tolerate the concealment of services and procedures the cost of.”
In addition to punishment, CMS also proposes that the hospital’s machine-readable files support automatic search and direct download.
In addition, the agency is seeking public opinion on various issues, including methods of identifying and highlighting model hospitals and improving the standardization of machine-readable documents.
The latter may prove necessary because there is some uncertainty about the effectiveness of the rule in allowing patients to make informed cost decisions when seeking care.One Analysis released in April It is suggested that the price of a service provided by one provider may not be directly comparable with the price of the same service provided by another provider. This is mainly due to the inconsistency in the way the hospital provides data.
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