Hospital Price Transparency and Disclosure Act of 2018
This bill amends the Public Health Service Act to require hospitals and ambulatory surgical centers to report to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS): (1) the frequency of certain treatment episodes for the most frequently treated conditions in each setting, (2) the total number of such treatment episodes, and (3) the average charge for the insured and uninsured for such a treatment episode.
HHS must publish on its website: (1) such information in a manner that promotes charge comparisons among hospitals and among ambulatory surgical centers, and (2) a link to other consumer quality information maintained on an HHS or Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services website. Hospitals and ambulatory surgical centers must post prominently at each admission site a notice of the availability of such data.
Civil penalties are authorized for violations of this bill.