The Trump administration has warned more than 500 hospitals, including Baxter Health Fulton County Hospital in Salem, they are failing to provide the public with basic pricing information – arguing that the lack of disclosure is keeping healthcare costs higher than they should be.
The Associated Press (AP) obtained exclusively the list of hospitals that, since April, have either received letters of warning or requests to submit plans to provide transparent pricing. Failing to comply with the warnings comes with penalties as high as $2 million annually for each recipient that doesn’t create a plan to post clear pricing data.
The letters are meant to fix a fundamental problem that patients, employers, and insurers might not know ahead of time the cost of blood work, an imaging test, or another form of treatment, and as a result pay more than they should have.
Baxter Health Vice President of Marketing and Communications Tobias Pugsley told KTLO, Classic Hits and The Boot News, “Baxter Health Fulton County Hospital received positive communication Friday morning from the CMS Price Transparency reviewer regarding the hospital’s updated price transparency changes.
The reviewer indicated that the submitted updates look good, marking an encouraging step forward in the review process. Baxter Health Fulton County Hospital will prepare and submit an official response letter today as part of the continued compliance process.
We appreciate the guidance provided throughout the review and remain committed to transparency, accuracy, and meeting all CMS price transparency requirements.”
A senior administration official who requested anonymity to provide the list said President Donald Trump plans to tighten enforcement of price transparency standards made possible by a 2019 executive order signed by Trump . More hospitals are likely to receive letters regarding the absence of pricing data, the official said.
With the various lists of hospital prices, the administration wants providers to make it easier to access the files and to ensure the information in them is legitimate, instead of being based on estimates or omitting numbers for key procedures.
The AP has posted a list of hospitals that have received letters.
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