Price Transparency
Hospitals and health systems are committed to empowering patients and their families with all the information they need to live their healthiest lives. This includes ensuring they have access to accurate and timely price information when seeking care. Hospitals and health systems have made important progress in adopting federal price transparency requirements that require they both publicly post machine-readable files of a wide range of rate information and provide more consumer-friendly displays of pricing information for at least 300 shoppable services.
AHA comments regarding H.R. 5378, Lower Costs, More Transparency Act, provisions.
In comments submitted today, AHA expressed strong concern about the proposed hospital outpatient market basket update, noting it 鈥渄oes not capture either the unprecedented inflationary environment or the other persistent financial headwinds hospitals and health systems are experiencing.鈥
Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce, Ways and Means, and Education & Workforce Committees have released a summary of draft legislation the committees could introduce as soon as this week.
A series of recent developments in Congress are adding significant urgency to AHA鈥檚 fight against site-neutral payment and other policies that would irreparably damage hospitals鈥 abilities to care for their communities, including a move to use rate setting that would offer commercial insurers a鈥
The AHA is deeply concerned that CMS is proposing a CY 2024 outpatient hospital payment update of only 2.8% despite persistent financial headwinds facing the hospital field.
The 黑料正能量 Association would like to provide feedback on sections of H.R. 4822, the 鈥淗ealth Care Price Transparency Act of 2023,鈥 as well as H.R. 3284, the 鈥淧roviders and Payers COMPETE Act.鈥
Once again, Patient Rights Advocate has put out a report that blatantly misconstrues, ignores, and mischaracterizes hospitals鈥 compliance with federal price transparency regulations. The AHA has repeatedly debunked point-by-point Patient Rights Advocate鈥檚 intentionally misleading 鈥渞eports鈥 on price鈥
The House Education & Workforce Committee July 12 voted 39-0 to pass legislation (H.R. 4509) that would require off-campus hospital outpatient departments to obtain a separate unique health identifier and include it on all claims for services billed to commercial group health plans or their鈥
In a statement submitted to the House Education and Workforce Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions for a hearing today on competition and transparency in health care, AHA said mergers and acquisitions are important tools that some hospitals use to lower costs and鈥
AHA statement on legislative proposals that are to be considered before the Energy and Commerce Committee on May 24.