Millions of Americans nationwide rely on their local hospital as the first, and often only, access point to receive high-quality healthcare. Hospitals are much more than brick-and-mortar buildings serving the sick; they are cornerstones of community health, counted on 24/7, especially in times of man-made and natural disasters. Their mission, whether a sole community provider or a large health system, is to generate the best outcomes for the communities they serve. And they have gone to great lengths to empower and support patients by providing information and resources for individuals and families to make informed medical decisions.
While some call for increased “price transparency” and blame hospitals for rising costs of care, evidence shows hospitals and healthcare systems have made great strides to meet government standards and provide patients with better information. A report from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) in 2022 found a full 70 percent of hospitals were in full compliance with the Hospital Price Transparency Rule—up from 27 percent in 2021.
More than four out of five hospitals and hospital systems met the rule’s requirement of posting an easy-to-understand list of services. The same percentage of hospitals met the rule’s other requirement of providing a machine-readable file of information, up from 30 percent the year prior. These gains demonstrate hospitals’ dedication to equipping patients with full information so that they are able to make informed health decisions.
Meanwhile, burdensome and deceptive billing practices by commercial insurers have made hospitals’ efforts to reduce costs more difficult, expensive, and complex. Almost a third of total healthcare spending is estimated to be on administrative costs – 82 percent of this is attributed to billing and insurance. This directly impacts clinicians and their ability to care for patients, as well: a recent poll of nurses found that nearly nine in 10 said that insurer-related administrative burdens had a negative outcome on patient clinical outcomes and the majority have seen administrative tasks increase over the past five years.
Congress should do all it can to empower hospitals, which, as the pandemic showcased, are the front lines of healthcare in our communities. Instead of increasing regulatory burdens, Congress should work to address the real factors driving higher costs, like administrative insurance burdens, to increase access to and lower the cost of care.