Third Way Statement on Congressional Agreement to Lower Hospital Prices

WASHINGTON—Third Way issued the following statement from Gabriel Horwitz, Senior Vice President of the Economic Program:

“Congress working across the aisle to tackle health care costs is a welcome gift this holiday season. That’s why we are grateful that Congressional leaders came together to agree on a health care package that includes much needed reforms to increase transparency and lower the cost of hospital care for patients.

“Hospitals are nickel and diming patients through extra costs known as ‘facility fees.’ These junk fees are often charged to patients receiving standard, routine care for doctors’ visits, labs, and other outpatient services. Thankfully, this health care package starts to protect patients from facility fees by requiring hospitals to bill based on the location where services are provided to patients, rather than defaulting the bill to the more expensive hospital campus. While this won’t end the practice of junk facility fees, it’s a step in the right direction to decreasing them.

“Early last year, Third Way launched the Fixing America’s Broken Hospitals initiative to promote policies that will increase competition and lower costs for patients receiving hospital care. Creating honest billing requirements for hospital-owned clinics was the very first policy endorsed by the initiative, and we are thrilled it is now close to becoming law.”