PatientRightsAdvocate.org Launches Hospital Price Files Finder

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Dec 11, 2023, 11:53 ET

First-of-its-kind Public Search Tool of Pricing Files for 6,000 Hospitals Nationwide

WASHINGTON, Dec. 11, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, PatientRightsAdvocate.org (PRA) announced the launch of the brand new Hospital Price Files Finder, a first-of-its-kind, free search tool of the available price transparency files for 6,000 hospitals nationwide.

The tool is searchable by state and region, and eliminates obstacles to finding pricing files by compiling and updating the dashboard with the most current information available. The PRA team converted the hospital pricing files to a standard, accessible format where necessary.

As of January 1, 2021, all hospitals are required by law to publish a machine-readable pricing file for all items and services offered, including negotiated rates by payer and plan and the discounted cash price. However, according to PRA's latest semi-annual report, just 36% of hospitals are fully compliant with the rule.

PRA Founder and Chairman Cynthia Fisher sent a letter to Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra explaining how this revolutionary new tool could help HHS and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) increase the rate of assessment for hospital compliance and enforcement for those not in full compliance with the rule.

"We are providing this tool to HHS and CMS in the hopes that it will expedite enforcement of this rule, which has now been in effect for nearly three years.

"We are also excited about the many possible applications of this tool for technology developers to create price comparison tools, empowering consumers – patients, employers, unions, and government plans – to compare and choose the best price, and to have remedy and recourse if there are overcharges, billing errors, and fraud. This access will reveal the significant and pervasive price variation across hospitals and health plans, allow researchers to easily compare prices, and aide employers when deciding on their benefit plan design.

"With systemwide price transparency, the savings employers will realize will allow them to create more jobs and pay higher wages, providing a substantial stimulus to the U.S. economy. We invite you to embrace this opportunity and use this tool to help realize the critical goal of complete healthcare price transparency for a healthier America, both physically and financially."

Click here to read the full letter to HHS.

Millions of patients, employer and union purchasers, workers, and technology developers stand to benefit from the increased access to prices this tool will provide.

"At the 32BJ Health Fund, this tool provides us with a centralized easy to use catalog of hospital pricing. We're excited to see the barriers to accessing this data reduced for our team and other payors." – Cora Opsahl, Health Fund Director, 32BJ Health Fund, which provides benefits to more than 145,000 union members and their families.

"The PRA hospital pricing files dashboard is going to be a game-changer and money-saver for the unions, major corporations, states, and municipalities we represent. With anywhere between two and seven percent of plan expenditures already identified as improperly spent, leveraging this data will help us more easily track and fight waste, fraud, and abuse that makes coverage and care unaffordable for employers and their members. The PRA tool delivers data that is incorporated into our system in order to reveal discriminatory pricing practices. Recognizing the power of information, especially in this long-awaited era of healthcare transparency, our clients will consistently gain the ability to negotiate improved rates and contracts for the nearly half a million lives they represent." – Stephen Carrabba, President, ClaimInformatics, a payment integrity firm that represents the self-funded employer marketplace.

About PRA

PatientRightsAdvocate.org (PRA) is a leading national healthcare price transparency organization dedicated to ushering in systemwide transparency through advocacy, testimony, media, legal research, and grassroots campaigns. PRA believes that the availability and visibility of actual, upfront healthcare prices will greatly lower costs for patients and employers through a functional, competitive healthcare marketplace.

SOURCE Patient Rights Advocate