Another study by PatientsRightsAdvocate.org back in July found that just over 5% of hospitals were complying with the price transparency mandate all together. About 80.6% did not publish payer-specific negotiated charges that detail price plans with third-party payers and plans, and 51.6% failed to publish any negotiated rates at all.

This conflicted with 85% of American consumers who said in a poll with PatientsRightsAdvocate.org that making healthcare prices, quality metrics and outcomes more transparent should be a priority for lawmakers.


Another challenge is the estimated cost of compliance, at $11,898.60 per hospital in year one, with the “minimal burden on hospitals for remaining compliance” going forward. Many hospitals have called this unrealistic, according to Brenna E. Jenny, a partner for law firm Sidley Austin’s Healthcare group. “Hospitals can expect that they will need to aggregate a cross-functional team, comprising operations, network system administrators, revenue cycle management and lawyers. Structural implementation decisions should be made as soon as possible, such as whether to use paid claims or data from contract management systems and which 230 shoppable services to post.”

CMS recently increased the penalty for non-compliance from $300 to $5,500 per day. Future studies will be required to assess if this higher penalty will lead to greater compliance.

The findings were published in the Journal of the American College of Radiology.

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