Price Transparency Rules Pose Extra Burden for Rural Hospitals (1)

The Medicare and Medicaid agency’s requirement that hospitals list prices for common services is straining rural hospitals that were already at risk of shutting down due to the financial pressures of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Many hospitals have already hesitated to comply with a Trump-era rule (RIN 0938–AU22) that required hospitals to reveal their pricing for outpatient services, citing the burden and expense of gathering and publishing the data.

The fine for violators—$300 per day for hospitals as of Jan. 1, regardless of size—is “a very small price to pay” for a major health system but enough to be “devastating” to ...