Rick Thornton, a Fort Worth health insurance agent, says more than half of hospitals nationwide haven’t jumped on board with legislation regarding price transparency, and this is affecting Americans everywhere.
Fort Worth health insurance and the people who have it might have to wait a little while longer until hospitals locally and across the country fall in line with federal price transparency rules outlined in the Affordable Care Act. The law requires hospitals to post prices for their services, but many aren’t doing so — leaving patients and health insurers in the dark.
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The news comes on the heel of a report in Yahoo News. Per the article, in November 2019, the previous administration issued regulations under the law that require hospitals to post the prices of the 300 common services in a file that can be downloaded from their websites as of January 1. This includes the gross charge for service, prices for cash-paying patients, and negotiated rates with insurers the hospital accept. Needless to say, we are halfway through the year, and many hospitals, including those that accept health insurance in Fort Worth, aren’t acquiescing to the regulation. Research has proven that over half of hospitals were not providing downloadable files or were noncompliant in other ways. “In other industries, consumers can see prices ahead of time. That gives them choice and the ability to compare. But hospitals are resistant to showing their pricing because they do not want to be in that kind of competitive environment,” said Keith Smith, an anesthesiologist and co-founder of the Surgery Center of Oklahoma who was quoted by Yahoo!
Rick Thornton, a Fort Worth health insurance agent echoed the articles sentiments that price transparency is an important piece to healthcare as everyone moves forward post-COVID. A YouGov poll from 2020 found that 91% of respondents said hospitals should be required to post their prices publicly. Furthermore, 66%, per the Yahoo! Article, believe price transparency would improve healthcare as a whole. Thornton said that while he agrees that hospitals have many reasons to keep their prices private, it’s also the right thing to do in making them public.
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