Proposal for transparency in medical costs one step closer after passing Ohio House

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- Ohio lawmakers want to hold hospitals more accountable when it comes to pricing.

The bill passed the Ohio House in June with only five votes against it, and is now being considered by senators.

“It protects consumers from overcharges,” Founder of patientrightsadvocate.org Cynthia Fisher said.

Federal laws that mandate greater price transparency have been in place for more than a decade, but Representatives Ron Ferguson (R-Wintersville) and Tim Barhorst (R-Fort Loramie) said they brought House Bill 49 forward because the enforcement has fallen short.

“Right now, the federal government doesn’t actually levy the penalties on the hospitals they are guilty of, the Ohio government will actually penalize you,” Ferguson said.

“Price transparency is truly transformative,” Fisher said. “It’s commonsense. It’s time to stop fighting commonsense.”

The bill, as originally written, required hospitals to maintain a public list of all standard charges for all hospital items or service. The bill required the state director of health to penalize hospitals that fail to do so.

Eight provisions have been added to the legislation, but 39 have since been removed. That includes modifying a provision to make it so the director of health is only permitted, not required, to hold hospitals accountable for non-compliance posting their price list.

“The current sub bill proposed by the Senate is something that will do nothing to help patients and certainly was created with hospitals in mind, not patients,” Ferguson said.

“It would be egregious to have it rolled back,” Fisher said.

A spokesperson for Senate Republicans offered a statement: "bills are amended all the time between the chambers as part of the normal legislative process. Pressuring one chamber to pass something ‘as is,’ bypasses the reason hearings are held in the first place.”

He compared hospital pricing to going to a mechanic. He said in both scenarios, you can get estimates, but things may change as the work is done, and additional costs may incur.

But Ferguson said price estimates at hospitals vary from patient to patient for the same procedure and said sometimes an estimate can under predict what the bill ends up being.

“That’s an apple to oranges comparison. That’s absolutely ridiculous. A mechanic can tell you the price of any service they do,” Ferguson said. “A mechanic can give you a fully itemized list every single price point and it would be the same for Natalie Fahmy as it is for Ron Ferguson.”

The Ohio Hospital and Ohio Children’s Hospital Association are the only group to submit public testimony against the bill. The organizations said they support price transparency, but said federal enforcement is already effective in motivating compliance.

But Fisher said less than ten percent of hospitals in Ohio are fully compliant with federal price transparency laws.

“A non-accountable estimate harms patients,” she said. “Price transparency enables all of us to be able to benefit from competition and ship up front to lower our costs of healthcare.”

In a statement, OSU Wexner Medical Center said they are committed to providing accessible, affordable care.

“We support price transparency and comply with existing federal requirements,” a spokesperson wrote. “We strive to achieve this without creating duplicative, complex, and costly regulatory structures.”

The Cleveland Clinic did not take a stance on the legislation, but said they are “in line with CMS Requirements."

Ohio Health also did not take a position on the legislation, but wrote a statement that said: “OhioHealth is committed to providing transparent data about potential charges and complies with all applicable laws. We have a robust online price estimator of shoppable services where patients can find individual, negotiated prices for a variety of services and medications and we are adding to this list on an ongoing basis.”

“Nowhere else in the economy do we function on estimate with no accountability,” Fisher said. Prices matter, prices protect, prices save, prices save lives, prices save money.”

Ferguson said as it is written today, he would “absolutely not,” support his own bill.

“And I would encourage everyone to vote no on it,” he said.

Ferguson said he has offered several substitute bills with concessions and compromises that he would be comfortable with.