NORFOLK, Va. — A new state law is adding transparency to hospital prices, as all Virginia hospitals must show the costs of all their services on their websites.
The state law adds to a federal law that already mandated that hospitals have their prices listed online. However, advocates said this hardly ever happened.
"Only about 25% of the nation's hospitals are fully complying by all of their prices," said Cynthia Fisher, the founder of the nonprofit Patient Rights Advocate.
Virginia is now the first state to codify the law into its state legislature. Fisher said this will bring more enforcement to hospitals that have flouted the rules.
However, the prices listed online are not always what people will end up paying.
"There is widespread price variation, sometimes as much as 10 times in the same time for care and services," said Fisher. "It can even happen in the same hospital."
Depending on a person's insurance, patients could end up paying wildly different prices. Some hospitals will tally insurance information on their websites to reflect in price, but they are only required to list the "standard" price.
It can be an alarming situation for people who walk in expecting one price, but receive another.
"We've seen childbirth at $6,000 for a C-section with one woman's plan and another woman giving birth by the same team in the same hospital paying over $60,000 for the same coded plan," said Fisher.
This may lead to some Virginians not getting the treatment they need because they are afraid of the final costs.
According to a Gallup poll, four out of 10 Americans will put off healthcare procedures out of financial anxiety.
Fisher said this new law could be the first step in combating unknown or even inflated costs that can hurt people in vulnerable situations.
"It's our right by law to get access to these prices and fight for a fair market price and refuse to be overcharged," said Fisher.
If a Virginia hospital does not have its prices listed online, it could face monetary penalties.