Health care affordability has become an increasingly tough burden for Pennsylvania families. Behind this crisis lies a clear culprit: corporate hospital systems that maximize profits and leave patients footing the bill.<\/p>\n
These hospital systems have cornered the market, tripled their prices<\/a> and buried patients under confusing bills \u2014 all while dodging any real accountability. In fact, right in your backyard, patients are being charged $9 for a standard blood test at one hospital, and nearly $226 for that same test at another area hospital, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette<\/a>.<\/p>\n Hospital monopolies are creating a health care affordability crisis for patients here in the Keystone State and across the country. Hospitals are the leading contributor of rising health care costs, with pricing practices that cost the nation\u2019s workforce an estimated $240 billion annually<\/a>.<\/p>\n Today, roughly\u00a070%\u00a0of American physicians<\/a> are employed by hospitals or large corporate health care organizations. When a doctor\u2019s private practice gets acquired by one of these hospital systems, patients often discover they\u2019re paying more for the same care. Hospital facility fees and location-based charges typically increase costs by about 14% after these takeovers<\/a>.<\/p>\n Just recently, Pennsylvania State Sen. Dawn Keefer, R-York, highlighted a constituent\u2019s story to the Altoona Mirror<\/a> about a medical bill they were planning to pay out-of-pocket that ended up being double the original estimate. According to Keefer, the estimated cost was around $1,800 \u2014 but the actual hospital bill came in at around $3,000. We\u2019ve seen stories like these across the country, where patients are blindsided by straining costs well after they\u2019ve received care with no warning or transparency.<\/p>\n This is unacceptable, and the path forward demands honest action: any meaningful effort to improve health care affordability must confront these hospital monopolies directly by promoting competition and price transparency so patients have options and know that what they\u2019re paying for is what they\u2019re getting.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s the problem:\u00a0one or two hospital systems\u00a0are running the show in about half of America\u2019s metro areas<\/a>. These monopolistic systems dramatically limit options for essential care. When patients actually have choices about where to go, hospitals have to compete on price. It\u2019s that simple. In the Lehigh Valley, we\u2019ve seen firsthand what major corporate hospital consolidation has done to health care prices with the recent merger between Lehigh Valley Health Network and Jefferson Health. As of 2022 Lehigh Valley Hospital-Hazleton was charging patients 335% of what Medicare pays<\/a> for certain services\u00a0\u2014 and these inflated markups are becoming the norm for consolidated hospital systems.<\/p>\n Hospitals that do not have any competitors within a 15-mile radius charge prices that are 12% higher on average<\/a> than those in markets with four or more competing hospitals. While St. Luke\u2019s hospitals are still a competitor in the Lehigh Valley region, their much smaller market share now threatens to strain the options people have to receive care.<\/p>\n Transparency reform needs to get real results. Hospital bills should be honest about what care costs and what it\u2019s worth. That\u2019s the real way to stop hospitals from hiding charges and confusing patients with their pricing tricks. Opaque billing confuses patients and impacts the integrity of our health system. While insurers are regulated to respond to prices set by hospitals, hospitals face no accountability in setting those prices in the first place.<\/p>\n