Report: Only 14 percent of hospitals are in compliance with rule requiring they publish their prices

A new report by a patient advocacy group showed only 14 percent of hospitals in the United States are in compliance so far with a federal mandate requiring hospitals to publish their prices publicly in spite of increased fines for noncompliance.

Patient Rights Advocate, a nonprofit that works to track hospitals’ compliance with federal laws, reported in February that of the 1,000 hospitals it examined, only 14.3 percent were in compliance with the federal mandate thus far.

The report also found that only 0.5 percent of the hospitals owned by the three largest hospital networks in the country, HCA Healthcare, CommonSpirit Health and Ascension, were in compliance.

The findings come after the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) increased the fines for noncompliance from $300 a day to up to $5,500 a day in January. The amount of the fines is based on the number of beds inside each hospital. The agency has yet to enforce any of the fines, according to a CMS spokesperson, but has issued “approximately 352 warning notices,” as of this month.

Patient Rights Advocate sent a letter to the board members of HCA Healthcare and the other noncompliant hospitals, urging them to comply with the federal mandates for the sake of patients and their financial wellbeing.

“Last November HHS increased the financial penalties on noncompliant hospitals to $2 million per year, per hospital,” the letter says. “We believe you have a fiduciary duty to ensure HCA avoids these penalties and their impact on HCA’s bottom line. But more important is your moral obligation to do what’s right for the patients/customers in the communities you serve.”