Last Friday CMS filed final rules requiring hospitals to make public their gross charges, payer (health plan) specific negotiated charges, minimum and maximum negotiated charges, and their discounted prices. The data is supposed to be displayed in electronic format. The rule will apply to all US hospitals. The rules kick in on January 1, 2021.
Hospitals will be required to make public standard charges for at least 300 “shoppable services” (including 70 CMS-specified and 230 hospital-selected) the hospital provides in a “consumer‑friendly” manner.
A sweeping rule indeed, until you look at the penalty for noncompliance. If CMS thinks a hospital is noncompliant they can fine the hospital up to $300/day (total). That’s about $110K per year.
This fact sheet discusses the provisions of the final rule (CMS-1717-F2), which can be downloaded from the Federal Register at: https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/cms-1717-f2.pdf.
