Colorado Lawmakers Crack Down on Hospitals for Predatory Practices

By Consumers for Quality Care, on August 31, 2022

According to The Colorado Springs Gazette, a new state price transparency law will prohibit Colorado hospitals from pursuing collection actions if the hospitals do not follow federal price transparency laws which require hospitals to post procedure prices online.

Although hospitals can still bill patients, the new law bans noncompliant hospitals from pursuing debt collections against patients. If noncompliant hospitals do pursue collection actions, they must refund any debt paid by the patient, in addition to all legal fees.

“This is a great step in improving the health care system to ensure affordable, high-quality care for all Coloradans and saving people money,” said Colorado Governor Jared Polis, praising the bill’s passage. “People deserve to know what all their medical bills will look like and finally we will have better price transparency which is needed for the market to work better in health care and empower patients to take control of their own health care needs.”

According to a report by PatientRightsAdvocate.org, only 6 percent of Colorado hospitals are in full compliance with the federal price transparency law, significantly lower than the national average of 16 percent.

CQC urges both regulators and lawmakers to hold hospitals accountable for failing to provide patients with transparent prices.