As hospitals creep toward complying with price transparency, payers and providers are focusing on how the No Surprises Act, which went into effect Jan. 1, and transparency rules will impact price mediation.
Here are seven recent stories on price transparency:
1. 14% of hospitals comply with price transparency, survey finds: 4 things to know
In a survey of 1,000 hospitals, 14.3 percent were compliant with the federal price transparency rule that took effect Jan. 1, 2021, a February report by patientrightsadvocate.org found.
2. Indiana Senate advances bill to slash prior authorization turnaround, increase price transparency
Indiana lawmakers are pushing forward a bill that aims to increase payer price transparency and cut down prior authorization turnaround time, according to the Indianapolis Business Journal.
3. Viewpoint: No Surprises Act controversy was never about price transparency
While the No Surprises Act has disrupted payer-provider relations, controversies are less about price transparency and more about out-of-network mediation, Larry Levitt, Kaiser Family Foundation executive vice president for health policy, wrote in a Jan. 20 JAMA Health Forum op-ed.
4. Oscar Health rolls out improved medical cost transparency calculator
Oscar Health launched a digital tool Jan. 20 that uses real-time data to allow individual and family plan members to estimate how much a treatment or visit will cost.
5. Viewpoint: Consumers not persuaded by hospital price transparency excuses
In a recent article, hospital leaders said that CMS' price transparency rules put them at a competitive disadvantage — a justification several readers argued is not persuasive in a Jan. 11 Wall Street Journal opinion piece.
6. Hospitals push for changes to dispute resolution process
The American Hospital Association recommended that HHS let hospitals that comply with price transparency use patient cost estimators to provide good faith estimates for pricing disputes.
7. Higher penalties for undisclosed prices won't sway all hospitals to comply, consultant say
While CMS' move to increase the penalty for hospitals that don't publish their prices will make some facilities more likely to comply with that requirement, it may not sway the country's largest health systems, Caroline Znaniec, a managing director at advisory firm CohnReznick, told Becker's Hospital Review.