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Health care costs are at the heart of a Health News Florida reporting project called PriceCheck. It lets you search and contribute to a database of common medical procedures. We want to hear from you, but submitting information on our database. You also can email our reporters at pricecheck@wusf.org (Tampa Bay) or pricecheck@wlrnnews.org (South Florida).You can also call 877-496-6999 if you wish to provide information or share comments that you do not want made public on this forum.

Scott: Hospitals Must Be Transparent To Get Funding

Leon County Judge John Cooper on June 30, 2022, in a screen grab from The Florida Channel.
Politico
/
The Florida Channel
Leon County Judge John Cooper on June 30, 2022, in a screen grab from The Florida Channel.

A day after proposing that hospitals post prices online, Gov. Rick Scott on Tuesday linked "transparency" to state funding for hospitals.

"If they're going to come back and ask us for more of your tax dollars, because they're your tax dollars we're spending, we ought to know how they are spending the money," along with information about their cost structures and prices, he said.

Scott said he will work with the Legislature on the issues and is trying to make sure that patients won't be "price gouged."

Scott, who has repeatedly targeted hospital costs and regulations in recent months, released a proposal Monday that would require hospitals to post on their websites the prices and average payments received for products and services that they offer.

Also, Scott called for patients to be able to pursue complaints of hospital price gouging with law-enforcement and regulatory agencies. Many hospitals rely heavily on state funding, primarily through Medicaid and what is known as the Low Income Pool program.

After the announcement Monday, Bruce Rueben, president of the Florida Hospital Association, took issue with Scott's assertions of price gouging and said it "doesn't help the discourse to make mean-spirited accusations that are completely unfounded."

Later Monday, the association released a statement saying the hospital industry has backed efforts to create more transparency for patients.

"Florida hospitals have long been public in our support for a responsible approach to transparency,'' Rueben said in the prepared statement. "We are committed to securing meaningful policy that ensures our patients and their families are able to make informed health care decisions."