Only 8% of Missouri hospitals found to comply with federal billing laws

According to a new federal law that took effect January of 2021 hospitals are required to tell you what a medical service costs before patients receive the care. But some Missouri hospitals have not been adhering to those transparency laws.

Of the 39 hospitals reviewed in Missouri only 3 were compliant with the law for an 8% compliance rate.

Some patents report that they have had to pay with blank checks and were sometimes being charged for services that they were never consulted on.

Mercy Hospitals in Missouri were one of the healthcare organizations that were identified as not fully complying with the new law. The chain did note, however, that they do have a cost estimator tool on their website to help patients get a estimation on what their healthcare costs might look like.

Likewise, Oklahoma also had a disappointing compliance rate. Of the 49 hospitals investigated only 3 of them were found to be in compliance with the new law for an overall compliance rate of 6%. In Kansas 51 hospitals were looked into with only 4 in compliance.

Of all the 4 states Arkansas hospitals did the best. The Natural State had 39 of their hospitals’ billing practices investigated finding 6 of them to follow the law for an overall 15% compliance rate.