BY HALEY DIRECTOR
The cost of providing employee health coverage has risen 43% over the past 10 years, surpassing adjustments for inflation and increased wages. Meanwhile, hospital prices have steadily kept pace with the rapid cost of care, increasing by as much as 31% since 2015. Unfortunately, these skyrocketing prices aren’t slowing down anytime soon.
Health care costs are out of control, and the majority of this burden is shouldered by both employers and their employees. While employers and employees here in New Hampshire scramble to make ends meet to afford basic necessities, inflation continues to chip away at the value of each dollar spent. The U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee Inflation Tracker shows the average household in New Hampshire is paying $1,092 more per month to purchase the same basket of goods and services as in January 2021.
Working alongside her Senate colleagues, Senator Hassan introduced a bipartisan bill to provide more transparency in pricing and address a flaw in hospitals’ billing systems that has allowed them to charge outrageous rates, which are then passed onto consumers. The Site-Based Invoicing and Transparency Enhancement (SITE) Act looks to eliminate a practice leveraged by hospital systems, sometimes called “dishonest billing,” by promoting billing transparency.
”Dishonest billing” refers to when hospitals secretly reclassify a doctor’s office that they own as a “hospital-based” setting, despite that office not actually being based at a hospital. This loophole allows hospital systems to arbitrarily charge patients and taxpayers higher prices for their care. Dishonest billing practices is a growing issue that has become more prevalent as hospital consolidation prevails and small physician-owned practices and off-campus facilities are acquired by larger hospital systems. One report found the number of independent physicians now employed by hospital systems increased by roughly 50% between 2012 and 2020. The Congressional Budget Office estimates taxpayers will spend close to $40 billion in excess costs due to exorbitant facility fee payments over the next decade.
Ending these hospital billing practices through requiring transparent billing is one of the most important things Granite Staters can do right now to dramatically lower healthcare costs. I applaud Senator Hassan’s initiative to work with her colleagues on a bipartisan basis to introduce common-sense solutions that prioritize transparent, honest solutions.
In Senator Hassan’s own words, “Our bipartisan bill takes on the healthcare industry to eliminate unfair fees, lower costs for patients, and save taxpayer dollars – and then we use those savings to invest in the healthcare workforce. Lowering healthcare costs for Americans is a bipartisan priority, and I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to support this commonsense bill.” I hope all lawmakers in Washington recognize Senator Hassan’s great work and follow her solution-oriented lead to lower healthcare costs for all Americans.
Haley Director, MPH, is the policy director for Rare New England. She holds a Masters in Public Health in Public Health Genetics and is a PhD student at the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health in Health Services Research and Policy.
