More than 40 hospitals in Kentucky and Indiana are part of a federal crackdown on price transparency. The hospitals, including eight in Kentucky and 34 in Indiana, were sent warning letters by the federal government over concerns that they are not following federal price transparency rules.

Affected Hospitals

The impacted hospitals in Kentucky include UofL Health Jewish Hospital, Cumberland Hall Hospital, Eastern State Hospital, Encompass Health Rehabilitation Hospital Of Lakeview, Hazard ARH Regional Medical Center, Marshall County Hospital, Pikeville Medical Center, and Sun Behavioral Health. In Indiana, the list includes Ascension Saint Vincent Women’s Hospital, Ascension St Vincent Heart Center, and several other Ascension hospitals, as well as Bloomington Meadows Hospital, Brightwell Behavioral Health, and Community Hospital East, among others.

Federal rules require hospitals to post prices for services and provide tools that allow patients to compare costs before they receive care. The goal is to make pricing easier for patients to understand so they can shop around and avoid surprise bills. However, some health systems, such as Ascension, say their issues are largely technical and do not mean pricing information isn’t available.

Hospitals that do not fix the problems could face fines of up to $2 million each year.

Original reporting: WLKY Louisville — read the source article.