NC Hospitals ‘Noncompliant’ In Publicly Posting Costs: Report

NORTH CAROLINA — Many U.S. hospitals, including several in North Carolina, are not complying with a federal policy that requires the facilities to post prices online for patients to review, according to a new report by Patients Rights Advocate.

The report, submitted to the White House last week, came after President Joe Biden instructed the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to start enforcing the regulation, which went into effect Jan. 1.

The purpose of the regulation is to help Americans know the cost of an item or service before receiving it at the hospital. Every hospital operating in the United States is required to post clear, accessible pricing information online, according to the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Hospitals also cannot require personal information to provide pricing.

The goal is to make it easier for consumers to shop and compare care prices before going to the hospital.

While the hospital industry sued to not reveal their prices, a bipartisan array of district and appeals court judges rejected each legal challenge in favor of the price transparency rule, according to the report.

To complete the report, authors analyzed the websites of 500 out of the approximately 6,000 hospitals subject to the rule. What it found was an overwhelming majority — 471, in fact — did not fully post the prices they charge patients or the rates they negotiated with insurance companies.

Among the small number of hospitals considered compliant, Vidant Medical Center in Greenville, NC made the list.

Of those considered non-compliant, nine hospitals were in North Carolina. Among them were:

• Advent Health Hendersonville, Henderson, NC
• Atrium Health Carolinas Medical Center, Charlotte
• Duke University Hospital, Durham, NC
• Haywood Regional Medical Center, Clyde, NC
• Mission Hospital, Asheville, NC
• Moses Cone Hospital, Greensboro, NC
• Novant Health Presbyterian Medical Center, Charlotte, NC
• Pardee Hospital, Hendersonville
• UNC Rex Hospital, Raleigh, NC

The authors of the report analyzed 10 different areas of compliance. A hospital was also considered non-compliant if it posted blanks or zeros in data fields, if it did not post all negotiated payer rates associated with specific plans, or if the price estimator tool did not show both the negotiated rates and discounted cash prices to provide pricing for all health care consumers, including the uninsured and those desiring to pay cash directly.

In North Carolina, Vidant Medical Center performed the best with compliance in 11 areas, while this Haywood Regional Medical Center was near the bottom of the list with compliance in only three areas.

Failure to post prices is complicating patients’ ability to shop for care, Cynthia Fisher, founder of Patient Rights Advocate, told The Washington Post, adding the group believes the survey is representative of hospitals nationwide.

“Right now, we see these hospitals being anti-competitive and not posting their prices, including the prices that they’ve negotiated with insurers,” Fisher told the Post. “We’ve seen wide price variation within the same hospital for the same services.”

Currently, hospitals that do not comply are fined up to $300, a number some advocates say is insufficient. The report calls for increasing the penalty to $30 per bed per day, a number that researchers believe will prompt hospitals to comply while also providing a fair penalty to smaller, more rural hospitals.

Read the full hospital cost transparency report and learn more about its methodology.

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