The Biden administration is proposing increased fines for large hospitals that refuse to post their prices online for patients to review.
A report conducted by a patient advocacy group and published in The Washington Post showed most of the 500 hospitals surveyed in the report did not post prices online, in direct violation of federal transparency rules that went into effect on Jan. 1.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the fine for hospitals with 30 or more beds – defined as large hospitals – refusing to make prices public, would be as much at $2 million a year. Currently, the fine is just under $110,000 a year.
The Wall Street Journal revealed that hundreds of hospitals embed code in their webpages that keeps their prices opaque.
The fines for hospitals with less than 30 beds would remain the same.