PatientRightsAdvocate.org Statements on Today’s Lawsuit Filed by Hospital Groups to Block Price Transparency Rule

December 4, 2019 – In response to today’s lawsuit filed by hospital groups to block the Administration’s rules requiring them to reveal their secret, negotiated rates, PatientRightsAdvocate.org asked litigator Jeffrey Harris, Esq., of Consovoy McCarthy PLLC, to comment on the hospitals’ use of the First Amendment to prevent price discovery.  Jeff stated:

“The First Amendment in no way supports the industry’s efforts to maintain secret prices. To the contrary, the Supreme Court has emphasized that ‘the free flow of commercial information is indispensable’ to ensure that consumers’ decisions are ‘intelligent and well informed.’”

“Courts have repeatedly upheld laws that, like the price transparency regulations, require companies to provide accurate information to their customers about a product or transaction. HHS’s regulations merely ensure that health care providers — like businesses in every other sector of the economy — disclose their prices upfront before patients commit to a transaction.”

“We are confident that the courts will not allow powerful incumbents to hide behind the First Amendment to keep their patients in the dark about the true cost of care.”

Jeffrey Harris is available to speak with press and can be reached at (202) 321-4120 or jeff@consovoymccarthy.com.

Cynthia A. Fisher, Founder and Chairman of PatientRightsAdvocate.org, stated:

“Rather than spending millions of dollars suing the Trump Administration for requiring hospitals to disclose their secret, negotiated rates and cash prices to patients before they get care, hospital associations and their hospital members should use their resources to comply with the rule.”

“Many patients delay going to the hospital for fear of financial ruin to them and their families.  Transparency, which exists in every other sector, will put patients in the driver’s seat by empowering them and their employers with real prices in healthcare.”

“Price transparency and a functional, competitive marketplace works in every other sector of our economy – grocery, retail, and travel.  Airline prices, once discoverable, were reduced by 50% in today’s real dollars, and consumers have broader access and higher levels of safety.  The same can apply in healthcare.”

“We applaud the hospitals that will comply and post their prices first.  Price transparency is working in healthcare where innovative physicians and surgeons have left this opaque system with honest, price transparent services, and are saving patients and employers 30 – 50%.” 

“Hats off to price transparent innovators like Walmart, Texas Free Market Surgery, Surgery Center of Oklahoma, and OSS Health who post their prices online and stand behind their work (see links for price lists).”

“At these facilities, patients know the real prices before care, and employers like H.B. Global, Employee Solutions, and Stauffers are already saving 40 - 50% for themselves and their employees.”

Cynthia A. Fisher is available to speak with press and can be reached at (617) 694-2333 or cfisher@patientrightsadvocate.org.