The Federal Trade Commission has sent warning letters to 24 “of the nation’s largest healthcare services” regarding their compliance with hospital price transparency requirements, the regulator announced Monday during a press event highlighting new regulations finalized by the Trump administration.
The letters, templates for which were made public (PDF), told hospitals they may be running afoul of the law if they fail to “provide patients with timely, accurate, and complete pricing for healthcare services, especially for non-emergency services that are scheduled in advance.”
“Today, like President Trump, we demand nothing less than radical transparency,” FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson said at the Monday event.
Notably, the commission’s letter describes price transparency rules implemented by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services as “a regulatory floor,” while also noting that compliance with those does not necessarily protect healthcare organizations from various requirements of the Federal Trade Commission Act prohibiting unfair or deceptive marketplace practices.
“In other words, CMS rules do not provide a safe harbor from liability under the FTC Act,” the letters read.
The letters go on to outline broad examples of such scenarios, such as when incomplete pricing terms (for instance, no details on physician or facility fees) can mislead patients about the full cost of care services.
Failing to fully and accurately disclose price information in advance prevents patients from comparing competing providers’ services and making informed decisions, harming those individuals and undermining competition in the market, the FTC wrote.
The FTC encouraged the letter recipients to “conduct a comprehensive review” of their current price transparency practices and “to take corrective action swiftly” if they fall short of the bar outlined in the letters. Failing to do so will open the door to legal action from the market regulator, Ferguson said at the event.
"Let me be clear: these letters are a warning,” the chairman said. “Healthcare providers must disclose their prices to consumers and must do so starting today. If they do not, then the FTC will take them to court. The FTC has already opened price transparency in law enforcement investigations against hospitals, and we will not rest until pricing transparency in healthcare is the universal norm."
The letters and Ferguson’s comments coincide with the release of a CMS final rule aimed at enhancing price transparency regulations. The rule looks to make the price transparency data that payers and providers are required to publish easier to access and use.
Reports published this summer and later confirmed by the administration found that more than 500 hospitals received warning notices or Corrective Action Plan requests from CMS between April and early June for failing to comply with the federal Hospital Price Transparency Rule. An August review of 2,000 hospitals conducted by PatientRightsAdvocate.org, an advocacy group, found 49.4% of hospitals complied with the rule.