Half of the hospitals that have been fined by CMS for alleged price transparency violations have appealed their penalties.
Jacksonville, Fla.-based UF Health North is the latest hospital to appeal its fine, according to a Sept. 29 update on CMS' price transparency enforcement website. The hospital is facing a $979,000 fine, the largest CMS has issued to date.
UF Health's appeal brings the total number of hospitals filing appeals to seven. All seven appeals remain under review. To date, 14 hospitals have been fined for price transparency violations. A 15th — Saint Elizabeths Hospital — was fined, but CMS later rescinded the Washington, D.C.-based public psychiatric facility's $677,440 penalty after determining it met exception criteria.
Appeals have come from both ends of the fine spectrum. Samaritan Hospital-Albany (N.Y.) Memorial Campus also recently appealed its fine. That hospital's $56,940 penalty is the lowest to be doled out by CMS.
Wichita Falls, Texas-based Kell West Regional Hospital was the first hospital to appeal its fine. The hospital was issued a $117,260 penalty in April but appealed the following month. Terry Stagg, Kell West's IT director, told NBC affiliate KFDX on May 4 that the company the hospital paid to handle the posting of standard hospital charges and shoppable services in a consumer-friendly manner did not follow through with that obligation, and the hospital has addressed it on its own.