Overview
- The House Ways & Means Committee, which held a high-profile hearing Tuesday, pressed leaders of HCA, CommonSpirit, NewYork-Presbyterian and ECU Health on why hospital prices keep climbing.
- Republicans led by Chair Jason Smith said mergers and market power drive a roughly 300% jump in prices over two decades and called the charges to patients “borderline extortionary.”
- Hospital chiefs said prices reflect higher labor, drug, supply and technology costs, heavy regulation and billions in uncompensated care, noting hospitals treat sicker patients and must accept all who show up.
- Lawmakers zeroed in on payment gaps for identical care, citing a colonoscopy that cost $656 at a surgery center versus $1,222 at a hospital outpatient site, and pointed to a site-neutral policy that the CBO says could save Medicare $157 billion over ten years.
- Scrutiny extended beyond prices, with a DOJ lawsuit accusing NewYork-Presbyterian of anticompetitive insurance contracting and committee questions about urban hospitals using rural designations to tap extra subsidies.