Hospital price transparency needs improvement.

PIRG urges federal government to improve how hospitals report prices for health care services and treatment.

In our campaign to drive down high health care prices, PIRG submitted comments to the Department of Health and Human Services to strengthen rules requiring hospitals to report and post prices for consumers. And urged expansion of site-neutral payment policies that pay the same price for the same service, whether it is provided in a hospital or doctor's office.

Americans are struggling to pay the high prices of the health care they need.

The Biden Administration has worked hard to ensure greater access to health insurance for the American public and recent data shows the national uninsured rate has reached an all-time low in 2023. And the Department of Health and Human Services has taken significant first steps to identify some of the highest priced prescriptions and will subject them to drug price negotiation in 2024. But more can, and should be done, to help the people in America with the cost of health care.

We applaud the elements of the proposed rules and offer some suggestions to strengthen them.

  1. Improving the hospital price transparency rule to improve compliance and make the law work for the public.
  2. Expanding site-neutral payment rules to take further steps towards eliminating some reimbursement incentives that drive up prices.

PIRG submitted comments to the Department of Health and Human Services to strengthen rules requiring hospitals to report and post prices for consumers. The comments were filed on September 11, 2023 in response to proposed rules: Request for Medicare Program: Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment and Ambulatory Surgical Center Payment Systems, etc Docket Number CMS-1786-P

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