AHA comments on price transparency, other healthcare bills considered during Senate HELP Committee markup

The AHA provided comments July 21 to the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions on price transparency, nursing workforce and rural obstetrics legislation that the committee considered during a markup held July 22. The committee considered the Patients Deserve Price Tags Act (S. 2355), a bill that would mandate hospitals, insurers, laboratories, imaging providers and ambulatory surgical centers to publicly disclose standard charges, discounted cash prices, payer-specific negotiated charges and ownership information in accessible formats. The AHA said that while the bill considered July 22 reflects changes from the earlier discussion draft, there remain serious concerns that the bill does not advance price transparency efforts and places unnecessary administrative burdens on providers. "As currently drafted, the manager's amendment will increase the administrative burden placed on hospitals and health systems to comply with myriad new reporting requirements that will be both difficult to execute and costly to maintain," the AHA wrote. "These could be especially onerous for small and rural hospitals, some of which are already struggling to serve their communities with current staff and resources."

The AHA expressed support for reauthorizing the Title VIII Nursing Workforce Reauthorization Act (S. 1874), legislation supporting advanced nursing education, nurse faculty development, and programs to help recruit and retain nurses in rural and underserved communities. The AHA also said it supported the Rural Obstetrics Readiness Act (S. 380), a bill that would establish grant funding for rural obstetric readiness, create a teleconsultation pilot program to support urgent maternal healthcare and direct the Department of Health and Human Services to study rural obstetric unit patterns and closures. These three bills were batched with two other measures considered during the markup, and all five passed the committee by a 22-1 vote.