Two Hospitals Fined for Violation of Medicare’s Price Transparency Law

I’ve long been an advocate for price transparency in healthcare. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (aka CMS) has recently taken action that requires hospitals to post their prices online, which should boost competition and help you shop around to save money. If memory serves, the price posting only applies to a limited number of services. I presume the rare hospitals that don’t accept Medicare and Medicaid payments are exempt.

From MedPage Today:

This week [June 2022], CMS handed down their first penalties to two hospitals in Georgia for failing to comply with the price transparency law that went into effect Jan. 1, 2021.

Northside Hospital Atlanta in Sandy Springs and Northside Hospital Cherokee in Canton were both fined for a lack of readily available standard charges for hospital services online, despite warnings.

The fines were on the order of $200,000 and $900,000.

If you find a hospital breaking the law, report ’em to CMS!

Steve Parker, MD

PS: Let me help you avoid hospitals.