Hospitals Must Make Charges Public Under Proposed Rule

On April 30, 2014, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a proposed rule under which hospitals must provide a public list of what they charge for every service. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) contains a requirement that every hospital make public an annual list of its charges for items and services. The PPACA requirement went into effect in September 2010, but most hospitals have not complied because CMS did not create regulations to implement the PPACA requirement before it published the current proposed regulation. The regulation requires only that hospitals provide a public list of their charges, not the rates they receive from insurers, which are often quite less. The regulation does not require that hospitals post their list of charges on their website or in a public place, rather, the regulation requires only that a hospital provide the information after an inquiry. The proposed rule is effective on October 1, 2014.

David Dirr is an attorney at Dressman Benzinger LaVelle and is a member of the firm’s healthcare and litigation practice groups. He is licensed to practice in Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana. David concentrates his practice on the areas of Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement, anti-kickback law, the Stark law, and HIPAA.