KY hospitals: Letters from Trump admin over pricing transparency were over technical issues
Hospitals are required to publish basic information about pricing for their services. (Getty Images)
Several of the Kentucky hospitals that received either warning notices or corrective action plan requests from the Trump administration that cited pricing transparency issues say the letters were sent because of technical errors.
The Associated Press obtained an exclusive list of 519 hospitals around the country that received letters from the Trump administration warning “that they are failing to provide the public with basic pricing information — arguing that the lack of disclosure is keeping healthcare costs higher than they should be.”
Hospitals are required to publish basic information about pricing for their services. The AP reported the list last Tuesday, which shows facilities in both blue and red leaning states received letters.
Kentucky had the following eight facilities listed:
- Cumberland Hall Hospital received a warning notice
- Eastern State Hospital received a Corrective Action Plan request
- Encompass Health Rehabilitation Hospital Of Lakeview received a warning notice
- Hazard ARH Regional Medical Center received a warning notice
- Marshall County Hospital received a warning notice
- Pikeville Medical Center received a warning notice
- Sun Behavioral Health received a Corrective Action Plan request
- UofL Health Jewish Hospital received a Corrective Action Plan request
The Lantern reached out to the Kentucky facilities via emails and phone calls last week and heard back from half of them.
The Cabinet for Health and Family Services, which owns Eastern State Hospital, said it and hospital administrator UKHealthcare “are aware of the federal administration’s communication regarding pricing transparency and have submitted a corrective action plan to comply.”
Cabinet spokeswoman Beth Fisher said Eastern State Hospital’s rates depend on federal and state guidelines: “CHFS calculates rates using federally established cost-based formulas, which are overseen by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), with final billing managed by UK Healthcare according to insurance and state ‘Ability to Pay’ guidelines,” she said.
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Others said the letters were sent because of technical issues rather than problems with the actual pricing transparency.
Encompass Health spokesperson Polly Manuel said the rehabilitation hospital in Elizabethtown has “corrected a formatting error at this location.”
The U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services “accepted the updated file for this hospital, confirming compliance,” Manuel said in an email to the Lantern.
Jewish Hospital also said there was a technical error that has since been corrected.
“There was (a) mismatch in naming convention with a previous version of a pricing list that referenced UofL Health. It should have referenced UofL Health – Louisville Inc., which is the legal name associated with the Jewish Hospital provider number,” according to spokesman David McArthur. “That has been corrected and we received notification from CMS that the remedy is compliant. The data transparency on our hospital charges was never at issue.”
Byron Gabbard, the chief financial officer for Appalachian Regional Healthcare, said the facility’s letter “involved technical aspects of how certain files were presented and formatted, and not the absence of pricing information itself.”
“The pricing information referenced in the CMS notice was available on our website at the time of the review as well as pricing information for all ARH hospital locations in Kentucky and West Virginia,” Gabbard said in an emailed statement. “Upon becoming aware of the issues, we corrected the files and have taken this as an opportunity to strengthen how this information is presented and accessible to the public.”
“ARH has consistently maintained pricing transparency information on its website for many years and remains committed to remaining in compliance with federal transparency requirements and providing patients with access to information about the cost of care,” he added.
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The full list
According to the Associated Press story, the following states had facilities receive letters:
- Alabama – 20
- Arizona – 6
- California – 38
- Colorado – 5
- Connecticut – 7
- Washington D.C. – 2
- Delaware – 4
- Florida – 21
- Georgia – 16
- Hawaii – 4
- Idaho – 3
- Illinois – 21
- Indiana – 34
- Iowa – 4
- Kansas – 8
- Louisiana – 27
- Maine – 3
- Maryland – 4
- Massachusetts – 12
- Michigan – 13
- Minnesota – 18
- Mississippi – 20
- Missouri – 16
- Montana – 5
- Nebraska – 8
- Nevada – 5
- New Hampshire – 1
- New Jersey – 8
- New Mexico – 3
- New York – 18
- North Carolina – 11
- North Dakota – 9
- Ohio – 10
- Oklahoma – 8
- Oregon – 4
- Pennsylvania – 13
- Rhode Island – 2
- South Carolina – 3
- South Dakota – 1
- Tennessee – 16
- Texas – 42
- Utah – 1
- Vermont – 1
- Washington – 9
- West Virginia – 2
- Wisconsin – 10
- Wyoming – 3
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