The latest Hospital Price Transparency Compliance Report from Patient Rights Advocate came out in November of 2024, and the findings are staggering: Only 21.1% of hospitals are fully compliant with the federal Hospital Price Transparency Rule. đź’©
Compliance is getting worse, not better. This is a sharp drop from 34.5% compliance earlier this year and 36.0% in 2023. Nearly 80% of hospitals are still refusing to disclose real, dollars-and-cents pricing for patients, employers, and plan sponsors.
The problem? Instead of empowering consumers with true price transparency, CMS weakened key requirements, allowing hospitals to:
- Replace actual prices with percentages, estimates, and algorithms
- Hide data behind non-user-friendly formats
- Post files that fail validation checks, making price comparisons impossible
Why this matters to the marketplace:
- Employers, unions, and consumers deserve real pricing data to make informed decisions.
- Plan sponsors are on the hook for fiduciary oversight under ERISA & the CAA.
- Without true transparency, price competition cannot function – and healthcare costs will continue to spiral out of control.
The Fix?
- Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services must enforce real price transparency—no more estimates, no more loopholes.
- Hospitals must be held accountable for posting clear, machine-readable, and human-readable pricing.
- Patients and employers need access to actual contracted rates to make informed decisions.
Kudos to Patient Rights Advocate for their tireless work in holding the industry accountable. I’m proud to have played a part in proving the direct contracting model years ago—demonstrating that transparency works, and that real market-driven solutions can reduce costs and improve access.
The time for real price transparency is now. The question is: Will hospitals and policymakers finally listen?
#WeFixYourHealthcare #PriceTransparency #PatientRights #HealthInsurance #EmployerBenefits #HospitalTransparency
7th Semi-Annual Hospital Price Transparency Report – November 2024:
https://www.patientrightsadvocate.org/seventh-semi-annual-hospital-price-transparency-report-november-2024
View the original LinkedIn post here.
