The hospital price transparency bill that was signed into effect on August 21 has elicited criticism from the Duke health community.
House Bill 834 mandates that hospitals and medical care agencies in North Carolina—including Duke University Medical Center—provide pricing information on 140 of the most common health care procedures to the Department of Health and Human Services. The DHHS will require information from hospitals on the exact pricing of the 100 most common in-patient treatments, 20 surgical procedures and 20 imaging services. The information will be made available to the public online.
The bill is intended to protect patients’ rights and help them make informed financial decisions regarding health care treatments, according to a press release from Gov. Pat McCrory’s office. Before the law passed, for example, hospitals could file a lien on a patient’s residence in order to collect unpaid medical bills in some situations, but now the practice is banned… (Read more here)
