Americans dealing with the worst inflation in 40 years are getting a taste of the rapid price increases that healthcare consumers have long endured. The Labor Department recently announced that consumer prices increased by 7.5 percent over the last year. Yet national health expenditure data reveal healthcare consumers have faced similarly elevated inflation levels for decades. President Biden and his administration can tame overall inflation by addressing this large and long-running source.
The federal government has penalized 764 hospitals — including more than three dozen it simultaneously rates as among the best in the country — for having the highest numbers of patient infections and potentially avoidable complications.
Dolores Wiese was recently hospitalized for a skin infection. But she wasn't treated in a hospital. Instead, a care team paid regular visits to her living room in a retirement community in Phoenix.
Providers are taking note of recent changes proposed by CMS regarding payment rules and updates to certain policies in its Calendar Year (CY) 2022 Physician Fee Schedule proposed rule.
The Texas legislature mandated that hospitals list their actual prices rather than estimates, and the Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) has now issued its regulatory compliance notice.
A hospital must post its chargemaster, a list of standard charges for services, on a shoppable online webpage that is free to access and readily available. It must be accessible through a search engine, provide a search function for the price list, and be reachable without having to create an account.
More states are imposing new limits on hospital billing practices, making fresh attempts to help patients avoid heavy medical debts.
At least 10 states, including Connecticut, Maryland, New Mexico and Maine, enacted laws last year with a range of provisions affecting healthcare providers and collection agencies, including requirements for hospitals to provide financial assistance to people with low incomes or limit aggressive debt-collection practices.
Other states, including Washington and Vermont, are currently considering bills to add or bolster consumer medical-billing protections.The activity is a sign of the heightened scrutiny that hospitals are facing after reports about bare-knuckle tactics used to collect on medical debts and after some facilities' own disclosures of high prices and limited financial assistance for certain patients.
