Deceptive hospital fees can cripple families. I’m a doctor who’s seen it happen here | Opinion

I spent 18 years of my career in an emergency room, treating close to 45,000 patients. This up-close view of the delivery of critical care made one thing abundantly clear: America’s health care costs are out of control. Exorbitant hospital prices hurt hard-working Americans by straining family budgets, burdening seniors with unexpected debts, increasing our government’s spending — and limiting the care patients need.

Large corporate hospital systems play a pivotal role in health care costs. Hospitals will tack on hefty “facility fees” to medical bills, raising the costs of life-saving services through superficial prices. Frequently, this is done without a patient being aware, leaving Americans with sticker shock when they receive their bill weeks later.

The consequences of these practices are profound for patients, resulting in out-of-control consumer expenses, increased government spending on Medicare, and a growing distrust and disdain toward the health care system at large.

I am not the only physician that is calling out this alarming trend. My colleagues across the medical profession, from practicing pediatricians to respected specialists, have collectively drawn attention to this pressing issue. Politicians such as Newt Gingrich, the former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, and Bobby Jindal, the previous governor of Louisiana and Assistant Secretary at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, have underscored how corporate hospitals conduct their medical billing and have called for reform. Politicians and think tanks on both sides of the aisle agree that fair billing reform will help lower health care costs.

There is consensus across the country that change is necessary, and the first step toward progress is to pass legislation focused on fair billing reforms. Fair billing necessitates that hospitals stop over-charging consumers for medical services. And a pivotal part of fair billing is the implementation of site-neutral payments, which would make significant strides to end unjust billing practices.

There is legislation in Congress that would do just that. The Site-based Invoicing and Transparency Enhancement Act (SITE) would ensure that hospitals follow fair billing practices. The bill would end up lowering both patient costs and government spending.

According to a study by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, enforcing site neutrality could potentially curtail Medicare spending by $153 billion within the coming decade, and spillover to the commercial market could further reduce the federal budget deficit by up to $279 billion. Beyond the benefits that the federal government would see, this policy could alleviate premiums and out-of-pocket expenses for Medicare beneficiaries by an estimated $94 billion.

In an economy where families are forgoing summer vacations due to high inflation and the high costs of everyday essentials such as groceries and fuel, projected savings from fair billing reforms could positively impact the lives of countless Americans.

I encourage Idaho’s senators, Sens. Mike Crapo and Jim Risch, to support the SITE Act. By doing so, they would help hold hospitals accountable for their billing practices, reduce government spending, and give Americans much-needed financial relief from mounting health care expenses.