The new No. 2 Republican leader in the Wisconsin State Senate on Thursday renewed her push for hospitals to be more transparent about what they charge for procedures.
State Sen. Mary Felzkowski, of Tomahawk, won a GOP caucus election last week to become the state Senate president. Republicans hold an 18-15 majority in the chamber after Democrats flipped four seats in the first election held with the state’s new district maps.
On Thursday, Felzkowski joined WPR’s “Wisconsin Today,” where she pushed for state government to make medical prices less opaque.
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“I appeal to everyone: What do you purchase that you don’t know the cost before you purchase it?” she asked.
Felzkowski made the same case during a 2023 press conference where she and others introduced a bill that later received a public hearing but never saw a vote.
That bill would have required hospitals to keep a list on their website of 300 “shoppable services,” or nonemergency procedures they provide. The plan also would have banned hospitals from charging for the information or requiring people to set up user accounts to read it. The state’s health department would have enforced the requirements and levied fines.
Felzkowski told “Wisconsin Today” that if employers knew what costs were, then they could build out low-cost and high-quality plans. Employers pursuing plans with the lowest cost and the highest quality, she said, would eventually drive down costs for patients.
When lawmakers introduced the 2023 bill, the Wisconsin Hospital Association in a statement said the plan was unnecessary because it overlapped with similar federal requirements.
Since 2021, hospitals in the U.S. have been, “required to provide clear, accessible pricing information online about the items and services they provide,” according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Felzkowski in 2023 said the federal government was not enforcing compliance. During her Thursday interview, she pointed to Colorado as an example of a state that is making it easier for patients to compare prices across hospitals.
The new Colorado Hospital Price Finder is up and running, KUNC reported a few weeks ago. During the website’s launch, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis said Americans should be angry at “being ripped off by healthcare.” There is also a state-sponsored equivalent, the Hospital Price Transparency Tool, that recently launched in Colorado.
Felzkowski said these services will let the market see more competition take place. Ultimately, she believes it will help patients.
“The saddest thing I see out there is people are not going to the doctor,” she said. “They’re not afraid of the diagnosis. They’re afraid of medical bankruptcy. They’re afraid of the cost.”
And when patients put off going to the doctor, she said their conditions could worsen. That makes their care more costly. Then, aside from the personal negative health effects, she said that has bad effects on the workforce and the economy.
“That is not something we want,” she said. “It’s something that we could address at the state level.”
