The American Hospital Association (AHA) sent a letter to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) urging a delay in implementation of the hospital price transparency rule. Hospitals are currently deeply immersed in the COVID-19 response and ensuring compliance with the rule would require a major shift in resources, staff time and finances away from COVID response. WSHA has endorsed the AHA letter.
WSHA also urged for a delay in its comments on provisions of the 2021 CMS inpatient prospective payment proposed rule, which requires hospitals to provide some of the rate information requested under the transparency rule in the hospitals’ Medicare cost reports. WSHA asked that the transparency provisions be delayed given the ongoing legal challenges to its implementation and also requested a delay in implementation of the transparency rule itself. (Andrew Busz, andrewb@wsha.org).
