Despite state and federal regulations that now require hospitals to post prices, many facilities refuse to disclose their rates. Fewer than half of Texas hospitals are in compliance, according to a recent analysis by Rice University.
That is why the Texas Department of Health and Human Services has proposed new rules to enforce and improve on existing requirements that too many hospitals continue to ignore. The bottom line is that lack of transparency by hospitals hurts patient access to affordable care.
The rules being proposed would do two simple things:
1) Require hospitals to make their list of prices easily accessible from the home page of the hospital’s website.
2) Impose fines on hospitals that do not comply.
Hospital lobbyists are working overtime to stop these commonsense rules from going into effect and block your ability to learn the cost of medical care. That is why we need you to take a few short moments to send Texas HHS a comment supporting their proposal to improve. price transparency.
Comments are due before 5pm on January 2, 2023.
For many email apps, CLICKING HERE will create a new message to Texas HHS with template wording you can modify and send.
If the above link does not work for you, you can copy and paste the below template comment into an email message. Consider personalizing the message with your own comments, if you have time. For example, specify whether you are a patient, physician, or other medical professional. Explain how lack of information about prices for medical care have impacted your ability to help patients or access care. Also include your name, city and state at the end of the message.
(If you prefer to send by mail, send to: Rules Coordination Office, P.O. Box 13247, Mail Code 4102, Austin, Texas 78711-3247, or street address 701 W. 51st Street, Austin, Texas 78751. Be sure to indicate: “Comments on Proposed Rule 22R033.”)
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TEMPLATE COMMENT
Subject: Comments on Proposed Rule 22R033″
Message body:
I am writing today in support of Proposed Rule 22R033. This commonsense measure is needed now, more than ever, to protect patients’ ability to obtain the information they need to choose the best options for medical care.
Currently, despite federal and state rules that require transparency, hospitals in Texas too often continue to refuse to provide prices to patients, prior to the receipt of care.
Blocking Texans from receiving this information not only harms individual patients but is detrimental to a goal of increasing access to affordable, high-quality care, throughout the state.
Please put patients first and approve 22R033.
[INCLUDE NAME, CITY, and STATE]————-
Thank you for speaking out! Your voice makes a difference!
