Tennessee hospital noncompliance with price transparency legislation for 8 common laboratory tests.

Abstract

Objectives: The goal of this study was to assess hospital compliance with federal price transparency mandates and barriers to pricing information in Tennessee.

Methods: All hospitals websites were queried for gross, cash, and BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee prices for 8 high-frequency laboratory tests in 2 Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services-mandated pricing sources: (1) a machine-readable file of all available services and (2) a consumer-friendly display of 300 shoppable services. Barriers, including click counts, data availability, and intrahospital price discrepancies, were noted.

Results: Of the 145 Tennessee hospitals assessed, 97.2% were noncompliant with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services final rule. Subanalysis of available machine-readable files, price estimators, and shoppable services files demonstrated 49.6%, 95.1%, and 78.6% noncompliance, respectively. Barriers to pricing information included requiring protected health information (55.9%), missing at least 1 pricing source (7.6%), having no pricing sources available (6.2%), and involving more than 3 clicks to access the cash price in machine-readable files (54.1%) and price estimators (68.6%.) Average intrahospital discrepancy for basic metabolic panel cash prices across pricing sources was $101.30 (range, $0-1012.40).

Conclusions: Our study showed high levels of noncompliance with price transparency laws, inconsistent and inaccessible pricing, and continued challenges facing patients in Tennessee.