AHA shares price transparency recommendations with House committee 

In a statement submitted to the House Ways and Means Committee for a hearing May 16 on health care price transparency, AHA recommended Congress and the Administration streamline existing hospital price transparency requirements to reduce potential patient confusion and unnecessary regulatory burden on providers, and refrain from advancing legislation or regulations that make it harder to provide meaningful price estimates. AHA also urged lawmakers and regulators to convene patients, providers and payers to seek their input on how to make federal price transparency policies as patient-centered as possible.  
 
According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, 82% of hospitals provided a consumer-friendly display of shoppable services information in 2022, up from 66% in 2021, and 82% met the machine-readable file requirement, up from 30% in 2021.  
 
“As the pandemic phase of COVID-19 winds down and hospitals have been able to resume more standard operations, they are able to dedicate the resources necessary to build the full suite of price transparency tools,” AHA said.  
 
Rick Gilfillan, M.D., a former director of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation and former Trinity Health CEO, testified at the hearing, along with a human resources director, surgical services provider, health economist, and provider of health care price data.