The Metropolis Council handed laws supported by Mayor Eric Adams aimed toward cracking down on sky-high hospital prices on Thursday, The Publish has realized.
The invoice sponsored by Councilwoman Julie Menin (D-Manhattan) would create a brand new workplace of “well being care accountability” inside metropolis authorities, and supply better transparency to sufferers on prices of medical procedures at a non-public hospital vs. city-run medical amenities — all on-line.
The Publish beforehand reported on analyses exhibiting town may save as a lot as $2 billion yearly by auditing precisely how a lot metropolis staff are paying for his or her well being care at numerous hospitals and making suggestions on methods to decrease the costs.
Menin argues it’ll assist town’s price range woes in future years.
“As we head into this very typical fiscal disaster that we’re in, and notably round points across the migrants, we have to get monetary savings,” she mentioned in an interview.
“This is among the few the place we are able to … if we had been to enact this invoice, construct a sturdy workplace of well being care accountability and put it to use to drive down prices by harnessing town’s buying energy.”
The measure handed the chamber 50-0.
“We’re dedicated to making sure each New Yorker has entry to high quality and inexpensive well being care with clear pricing,” mentioned Metropolis Corridor spokesperson Kate Sensible in a press release.
“This invoice will make it simpler for New Yorkers to search out info on hospital pricing, and we’re grateful to our companions in labor and the council for pushing this ahead.”
It’s opposed by the state’s highly effective hospital foyer, the Better New York Hospital Affiliation.
“Hospitals in New York Metropolis face extreme financial pressures, together with Medicaid and Medicare reimbursement that doesn’t come near overlaying the price of care,” GNYHA president Kenneth E. Raske advised The Publish in a press release.
“This invoice does nothing to deal with these underpayments and provides struggling security hospitals no monetary help. As an alternative, it wrongly blames hospitals for rising well being care prices whereas ignoring nationwide insurance coverage corporations that ship their large income out of New York. Our hospitals deserve higher.”
Constructing providers union 32BJ launched a report final 12 months utilizing members’ medical billing information to match disparate costs for procedures finished at non-public hospitals within the metropolis, in comparison with the identical surgical procedures accomplished at public hospitals — discovering non-public hospitals are charging far more.
For instance, an outpatient colonoscopy runs $10,368 at New York-Presbyterian, however prices simply $4,139 at Mt. Sinai Hospital.
In the meantime, on the metropolis’s public hospital system, it’s even cheaper: $2,185 for the process.
“Nobody ought to stroll right into a hospital extra anxious about their invoice than the analysis. The creation of a first-in-the-nation Workplace of Healthcare Accountability will give households, companies and our metropolis authorities the pricing transparency they should fight outrageous and unfair hospital prices,” mentioned Manny Pastreich, president of SEIU 32BJ.
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