The New Jersey Star-Ledger ran a joint op-ed by Cynthia A. Fisher, founder and chairman of PRA, and Kyle Bragg, president of SEIU 32BJ. The piece explains how healthcare price transparency can eliminate widespread hospital price gouging by empowering consumers to shop for quality, less-expensive care. It highlights how the SEIU 32BJ Health Fund recently decided to drop New York-Presbyterian Hospital from its health plan network after its data showed that the system charges on average 358% more than Medicare for the same procedures.

Barron’s and MarketWatch recently ran an op-ed by Cynthia A. Fisher, founder and chairman of PatientRightsAdvocate.org, explaining how healthcare price transparency can address American workers’ falling real wages due to high inflation. Cynthia discusses how employers can use actual, upfront prices to identify quality, less expensive care and share these savings with employees in the form of higher wages

The Biden Administration’s proposed OPPS rule to strengthen hospital price transparency has received support from a bipartisan group of Congressional leaders. Reps. Frank Pallone (D-NJ) and Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), and Sens. Mike Braun (R-IN) and Maggie Hassan (D-NH) have submitted comment letters in support of the proposal.

PatientRightsAdvocate.org submitted a public comment for the Biden Administration’s proposed 2022 Outpatient Prospective Payment System (OPPS) rule. The comment letter explains how this rule is an opportunity to usher in systemwide healthcare price transparency, with actual, upfront prices – not estimates – for all consumers. Doing so will deliver on the Biden Administration’s pro-competition agenda and broader healthcare goals to make the American healthcare system simple, affordable, accessible, and equitable by ushering in a functional, competitive market that puts consumers in control of their healthcare decisions.

PRA founder and chairman Cynthia A. Fisher appeared on NPR Charlotte Talks With Mike Collins to discuss healthcare price transparency.

PatientRightsAdvocate.org submitted a public comment to CMS regarding its proposed rule: Requirements Related to Surprise Billing; Part I (the “IFC”). The letter calls on CMS to strengthen its final surprise billing rule to include real price transparency.

The Asheville Citizen-Times ran an op-ed by Liz Button, co-founder of the Asheville, North Carolina restaurant Cúrate, discussing how employers can address runaway healthcare costs for their businesses and employees by pursuing price transparent healthcare options. Liz explains she’s cut her healthcare costs by roughly 40 percent via price transparency and how recent actions by the Biden administration and North Carolina’s Attorney General will help other businesses follow her lead.

President Biden recently issued an executive order calling on the Department of Health and Human Services to support the hospital price transparency rule that took effect at the beginning of the year. On Sunday, the Boston Herald ran an op-ed by Cynthia A. Fisher, founder and chair of PatientRightsAdvocate.org, arguing that this order can turn the hospital rule into reality.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette published a 4,000-word investigation into Pennsylvania hospitals’ lack of compliance with the hospital price transparency rule that took effect at the beginning of the year.

A survey commissioned by PatientRightsAdvocate.org and performed by John Della Volpe of SocialSphere examined attitudes toward various aspects of healthcare reform. The poll reinforced the importance of healthcare costs to American consumers and revealed a high level of support for government action to establish and enforce price transparency measures.

Cynthia Rivera, a patient from upstate New York, was able to save approximately $4,000 on her healthcare due to price transparency. In an op-ed in the Utica Observer-Dispatch, Cynthia tells her story of how she was blinded to prices and blindsided with a $3,000 bill (after her insurance contribution) for nine physical therapy sessions that consisted of just stretching and taping.

On Friday, President Biden signed a pro-competition executive order that includes a provision calling on the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to support the hospital price transparency rule that took effect at the beginning of the year. This order is a major win for American consumers because it gives bipartisan presidential endorsement to the game-changing rule requiring hospitals to post their real prices, including their discounted cash and secret negotiated rates.

Our health care system keeps making us pay more for less, often unfairly. But if you follow some basic steps you can make sure you get a fair deal. Here are seven patient empowerment steps we should all take when we undergo health care.

Mason Kochel, a sophomore at Colorado Mesa University in Grand Junction, has an op-ed in Colorado Politics telling his story of hospital price gouging and explaining from firsthand experience how real prices can reduce crushing healthcare costs. He discusses how he used actual prices to successfully fight an $18,000 hospital bill, and he argues that greater compliance with the hospital price transparency rule that took effect at the beginning of the year can empower more patients to do the same.

Dr. Keith Smith, the co-founder of the Surgery Center of Oklahoma, has an op-ed in The Oklahoman explaining how healthcare price transparency can reduce obscene medical prices. The Surgery Center of Oklahoma posts easily accessible, real prices offering patients financial certainty, the opportunity to shop for their care, and deep discounts compared to major hospital systems.

A new JAMA study finds that only about 20 percent of American hospitals are complying with the hospital price transparency rule that took effect earlier this year. The JAMA findings align with research from PatientRightsAdvocate.org and other recent studies published by Health Affairs and the Kaiser Family Foundation showing widespread hospital noncompliance.