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Diving briefs:
Earlier this week, President Donald Trump told three federal agencies:Quickly implement and implement“He first rolled out in 2019 Healthcare Price Transparency Regulations.
During Trump's first administration, he ordered Hospitals aim to help patients shop for care in order to publicly disclose prices that reflect what patients and insurance companies “actually pay” for services.
However, several advocacy groups say the hospitals were unable to fully implement the price transparency rules. Trump has condemned the Biden administration without enforcing rules and has promised a stronger stance on violations.
Dive Insights:
The executive order calls on departments of the Treasury, Labour and HHS to develop a framework for implementing the 2019 executive order on price transparency within 90 days.
Hospitals should disclose the actual prices of services rather than estimates and post information in a standardized way that is easily comparable to hospitals and health plans.
Specifically, the hospital must list price information for up to 300 shopping services and provide a machine-readable file with negotiated fees for all services offered by the hospital. Health plans also require that the negotiated fee be listed on providers and out-of-network payments.
According to the Trump administration's economic analysis, requiring hospitals to list prices could lead to significant savings for consumers. They estimate that posting prices will reduce the costs of the most expensive procedures, allowing consumers to shop better.
The order says advocacy groups have almost dropped the ball by implementing hospital price transparency.
In November, separate reports from the patient advocacy group Patient Rights Advocates and the HHS inspector's office recorded detailed details that were not widely used in the regulations.
Patient rights advocates found that only 21.1% of hospitals surveyed were fully compliant with the rules, starting from 34.5% since the last review.
At the time, the organisation's chairman and founder Cynthia Fisher denounced parts of the Biden administration of hospitals for backsleading, saying the administration had fined only a few hospitals that had not complying with regulations.
Trump similarly accused Biden of walking the measure slowly.
“Hospitals and health plans were not properly kept to explain when price transparency data was incomplete or not posted at all,” Trump wrote in an executive order. “The Biden administration has failed to take sufficient steps to fully implement my administration's requirements to end the uncertain nature of drug prices by publicly posting the true prices that health plans pay for prescription drugs.”
Fisher cheered for the executive order in a statement to healthcare diving.
“Consumers have long been left without the ability to see prepaid prices, without the past, hidden fees, or the ability to have the amazing medical expenses relief or means. This opacity has allowed healthcare costs and premiums to spike and medical debt recovery,” Fisher said.
