November 19, 2019

CMA, Solidarity HealthShare and Christ Medicus Foundation Applaud HHS Action to Create More Transparency in Healthcare

Philadelphia, PA—The Catholic Medical Association, together with Solidarity HealthShare and Christ Medicus Foundation are commending the Trump Administration for its push to achieve more transparency in healthcare.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced Friday that two rules issued by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services “will require hospitals to publicly disclose amounts that reflect what people actually pay for services in an easy-to-read format.”

“The Catholic Medical Association applauds any efforts to ensure patients and their families have access to this critical information,” said CMA President, Dr. John Schirger.

The administration’s effort “to improve price and quality in healthcare” is critical for all three of our organizations as we work to maintain ethics in healthcare.

“At Solidarity HealthShare we strongly encourage our members to become knowledgeable healthcare consumers. Information empowers all of us to be active stewards of our healthcare expenses. At Solidarity HealthShare we strive for transparency of all medical bills, resulting in savings of over 60%. We’re hopeful that these new rules will lead to fair and just pricing available to all consumers,” said Chris Faddis, Co-founder and President of Solidarity HealthShare.

“The new HHS price transparency rules give greater control to patients over their own health care and I applaud President Trump and Secretary Azar for their commitment to patient-centered care. Members of the Christ Medicus Foundation (CMF) CURO health sharing option know the benefits of transparent health care costs and CMF believes that such transparency should be available to patients across the board, not just in health sharing. The more price transparency available to patients, the more patients can exercise legitimate control over their own health care,” said Louis Brown, Executive Director of the Christ Medicus Foundation.

With healthcare being first and foremost about the needs of the patients, we are hopeful the new rules will restore this priority across the profession.

“This is yet another example of the administration’s ongoing effort to address the actual, intrinsic economic problems in healthcare delivery driving the unsustainable rise in medical costs created by decades of third-party payers control over medical expenses. By requiring transparency in prices, consumers of healthcare will consider cost and value in deciding by whom and where they will receive their care,” said Dr. Steven White, Chair of CMA’s Healthcare Policy Committee.”

“This will increase competition leading to lower costs, higher quality, freedom of choice and innovation while strengthening the patient-physician relationship. This is another positive step in the direction of reestablishing a patient centered, market driven system of healthcare delivery as opposed to a government controlled, socialist system,” added Dr. White.

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The Catholic Medical Association is a national, physician-led community of 2,500 healthcare professionals consisting of more than 109 local guilds. CMA mission is to inform, organize, and inspire its members, in steadfast fidelity to the teachings of the Catholic Church, to uphold the principles of the Catholic faith in the science and practice of medicine.FacebookTwitterShare

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