Medicare Patients

CMS officially mandated all hospitals must publish to the internet their current standard charges by January 1, 2019.

This official mandate can be found in the Final Rule Federal Register.

Pay special attention to the language on Page 543:

We noted that section 2718(e) of the Public Health Service Act, which was enacted as part of the Affordable Care Act, requires that each hospital operating within the United States, for each year, establish (and update) and make public (in accordance with guidelines developed by the Secretary) a list of the hospital’s standard charges for items and services provided by the hospital, including for diagnosis-related groups established under section 1886(d)(4) of the Social Security Act.

Effective January 1, 2019, requires hospitals to make available a list of their current standard charges via the internet in a machine readable format and to update this information at least annually, or more often as appropriate.

Three (3) important points: