Noting that "we must protect patients," Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier on Friday opened an investigation into the price transparency and billing practices of Florida hospitals.
“For years, many hospitals have extorted patients who have come in with life-or-death cases and left with crippling debt,” Uthmeier said in a video posted on X. “Florida is not going to sit by on the sidelines.”
Uthmeier said the probe is in support of President Donald Trump’s February executive order on hospital billing “by empowering patients with clear, accurate and actionable health care pricing information.”
Trump’s order, part of his “Make America Healthy Again” agenda, builds upon initiatives from his first term. It directs federal agencies to ensure hospitals and insurers disclose “actual prices, not estimates.”
“The big health care industrial complex continues to rake in billions off Americans in their most vulnerable moments,” Uthmeier said.
Florida law forbids unfair and deceptive acts, including the omission of price information, Uthmeier said.
As part of the investigation, Uthmeier said he has issued subpoenas to “multiple” hospital systems to ensure they are complying. The probe will look into “patient charges, disclosures, billing practices, price transparency and surprise billing protections.”
Subpoenas were sent to Southern Baptist of Florida and AdventHealth, according to the Orlando Sentinel, citing the patient advocacy group PatientRightsAdvocate.org.
“We do not take the issuance of subpoenas lightly, and we expect these hospitals to be cooperative,” the attorney general said.
Some Florida hospitals have charge-to-cost ratios showing charges over 10 times what the facility pays, according to PatientRightsAdvocate,org, which works to lower health care costs through price transparency.
In a statement, the nonprofit said the Florida investigation will help end “predatory practices.”
“Hospitals have hidden their prices yet have forced patients to sign a blank check before they can get care. As long as prices have been hidden, hospitals have been able to charge whatever they want,” Cynthia A. Fisher, the group’s founder, said in the statement.
