By Emma Murphy, Oklahoma Voice
OKLAHOMA CITY — Oklahoma’s hospitals will be required to post prices for procedures and services online beginning Saturday as part of a new law that could also prohibit them from collecting some outstanding medical debt.
Gov. Kevin Stitt celebrated Senate Bill 889 at a press conference Tuesday and said it was “common sense” legislation working to lower Oklahoma’s health care costs by putting the “power back in the consumer’s hands.”
“So now, as a patient, you can see the cost of services upfront before you actually go into the hospital,” he said. “You have the opportunity to shop around to find the best service, the best price possible. And we think that’s really, really good. It happens in every other industry, but somehow, the health care industry has done a really good job of hiding the prices and not letting it be transparent with the consumers, but we do it with whether you’re buying a car or going to the grocery store.”
The law, authored by Rep. Mark Lepak, R-Claremore, and Sen. Casey Murdock, R-Felt, requires all Oklahoma hospitals to post the prices of their services on their website, and it authorizes the Oklahoma State Department of Health to oversee compliance and enforcement.
Hospitals are required to publish prices for at least 300 services, prioritizing their “frequently used” services.
“While this bill isn’t specifically about health insurance, I think it provides a better informed consumer of those services,” Lepak said. “And over the long run, we want to get control of health care costs and still be the best in the world at delivering services. We’ve got to have a better educated patient population.”
Hospitals that fail to comply with the price transparency law will not be able to collect on a patient’s medical debt. If a patient believes the hospital is noncompliant, they can sue, Lepak said.
If the Health Department identifies a hospital as noncompliant, the agency will issue a written notice and the hospital must submit a corrective action plan. If the hospital fails to do so, an “administrative penalty” will be imposed and the penalty will be publicized on the department’s website.
The bill codifies a February executive order from President Donald Trump requiring hospital price transparency.
The Oklahoma Health Department is charged with overseeing compliance. An agency spokesperson previously said there were no anticipated additional costs for the Health Department to comply with the law.
A spokesperson for the Oklahoma Hospital Association could not offer comment by the time of publication but the group’s CEO previously told Oklahoma Voice that while the association supports greater transparency, he was concerned about overburdensome government regulation.
