US House Committee on Energy and Commerce Passes Cost and Transparency Bills

The U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce voted May 24 to advance several bills intended to lower costs and increase transparency in healthcare.

Of those bills, the committee moved forward the Promoting Access to Treatments and Increasing Extremely Needed Transparency (PATIENT) Act of 2023 (H.R. 3561). The bipartisan Patient Act was introduced by committee Chairwoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) and ranking member Frank Pallone (D-NJ).

The PATIENT Act includes language that would require entities, including “physician owned physician practices” with more than 25 physicians, to report annually to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS):

• Business structure (including type and tax status).
• Mergers data.
• Acquisitions and changes in ownership for the previous one-year period.
• If an entity is or includes a hospital — name, address and business structure of its parent company and any owners of that company who own a controlling interest.
• Any other information requested at the discretion of the secretary of HHS.

Failure to report this information would result in a $2 million fine.

The bill also calls for HHS by 2027 to issue a report that includes the above information and consolidation trends in healthcare. The information would be made available online to the public.

The American College of Radiology® (ACR®) continues to monitor this legislation as it progresses. For more information, contact Rebecca Spangler, ACR Senior Government Relations Director.