Florida hospitals continue to increase prices despite public shaming over major price hikes: 5 key points

Practice Management

Last year, several hospitals came under fire after news broke over hospitals raising prices for patients by 1,000 percent. However, a recent study showed hospitals continued to increase prices this year, despite the negative publicity, according to The Washington Post.

Here are five key points:

 

1. University of Miami researchers conducted a study looking at whether negative publicity prompted Florida hospitals to lower their prices following news that 20 of the priciest hospitals in the United States hailed from Florida.

 

2. Researchers found hospitals substantially increased their prices despite the public name-shaming.

 

3. Factors spurring these hospitals to hike prices include lack of market competition, lack of hospital transparency and the government failing to regulate prices that providers charge. Only regulators in Maryland and West Virginia set hospital rates.

 

4. Researchers noted patients using out-of-network providers are likely to bear the brunt of these price hikes. The state also does not have legislation mandating for-profit hospitals offer discounts to eligible uninsured patients.

 

5. North Okaloosa Medical Center in Crestview increased charges by more than 52 percent from 2010 to 2015. Bayfront Health Dade City (Fla.) increased prices by more than 95 percent in that time frame.

 

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