New York City Council is expected to pass a bill that will create a first-of-its-kind healthcare accountability office to analyze hospital costs and provide information about prices online, the New York Times reported June 7.
The healthcare accountability office would list the prices of common hospital procedures on its website in a "simplified and publicly accessible format" that would allow consumers to compare procedures, according to the report.
The Greater New York Hospital Association strongly opposes the bill, arguing that hospitals are already working to comply with federal regulations implemented in 2021 requiring them to publish a complete list of prices they negotiate with private insurers, according to the report.
David Rich, an executive vice president at the Greater New York Hospital Association, said earlier this year that the bill unfairly targets hospitals instead of payers, according to the report.
"It virtually ignores the behemoth national for-profit health insurance companies that make enormous profits in New York's health care economy and ship those profits out of New York to their parent organizations and shareholders," Mr. Rich said at a February council meeting, according to the report.
Forty-two of the city's 51 council members are co-sponsors of the legislation, and Mayor Eric Adams has said he supports the bill, the report stated.