Amid increasing provider integration, Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen is putting pressure on health systems to embrace more transparency.
To start, Jepsen is asking the Connecticut health systems and hospitals to disclose information on their acquisition of independent physician practices, free-standing surgical centers and urgent care clinics, and how they notify patients of such affiliations and any associated facility fees.
"Last month, I invited patients to be a part of this conversation by filing complaints with my office, and today I urge the state's hospitals to contribute to this conversation as well," Jepsen said in a media release.
"This information will assist me in crafting legislative proposals to ensure meaningful transparency for consumers concerning facility fees," said Jepsen, a one-time carpenter's union lawyer and longtime state representative. "More broadly, it will assist me in monitoring and protecting competition in the fast-evolving healthcare market."
Ahead of the 2014 legislative session, Jepsen is asking state lawmakers to consider legislation requiring hospitals to be more transparent in their use of outpatient facility fees -- a type charge, separate from professional fees, justified as a way to cover overhead but also criticized as a vehicle for revenue boosting.
Jepsen said his interest in new legislation centers on facility fees charged by hospital-based providers at off-campus locations.
"There is concern that entities acquired by hospitals may not clearly disclose their affiliation with a hospital or the fact that they will charge a separate and often expensive facility fee," Jepsen said.
Jepsen's office is also encouraging Connecticut residents to file a complaint if they've been charged facility fees without notice at the point of treatment, or if they had trouble learning the amount of the facility fees after notification.
The federal government may also be taking aim at the use of some facility fees in Medicare. In September, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services proposed replacing five escalating facility codes and fees for hospital emergency department care with one flat ED facility fee, an idea that providers groups are not board with.