HHS looks to increase healthcare ownership transparency

Photo: Sam Edwards/Getty Images

Prompted by President Biden's executive order on promoting competition, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is releasing ownership data for all Medicare-certified hospitals. For the first time, anyone will be able to review detailed information on the ownership of more than 7,000 hospitals certified to participate in the Medicare program on the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services website.

According to HHS, making facility ownership information transparent benefits researchers and enforcement agencies by allowing them to:

• identify common owners that have had histories of poor performance.
• analyze data and trends on how market consolidation impacts consumers with increased costs, without necessarily improving quality of care.
• evaluate the relationships between ownership and changes in healthcare costs and outcomes.

The agency said that transparent data about ownership assists patients in making informed decisions about their care. HHS plans to analyze the data to identify ways to inform policy approaches that can improve competition in healthcare.

WHAT'S THE IMPACT?

The new information posted includes detailed information on the ownership of more than 7,000 hospitals certified to participate in the Medicare program regardless of any change in ownership.

The data elements include enrollment information such as

• organization name, type, practice-location addresses (e.g. off campus).
• National Provider Identifier and CMS Certification Number.
• detailed information about each owner, such as whether it's an organization or an individual.
• whether the owner is direct or indirect (meaning there's at least one subsidiary between it and the provider).
• a numerical associate ID for each owner to enable linkage to the enrollment file.

HHS's Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) has published a series of reports demonstrating the usefulness of these data sources to examine policy issues, including nursing home market concentration, types of facility owners, hospital profit margins and mergers, and the relationship between nursing home acquisitions and quality.

THE LARGER TREND

The announcement follows what HHS called "historic" releases of data and efforts to increase transparency. 

In April, CMS released data publicly for the first time on mergers, acquisitions, consolidations and changes of ownership from 2016 to 2022 for hospitals and nursing homes enrolled in Medicare. In September, CMS released additional data publicly on the ownership of approximately 15,000 nursing homes certified as Medicare Skilled Nursing Facilities, regardless of any change in ownership, including more information about organizational owners of nursing homes.

ON THE RECORD

"At President Biden's direction, this Administration puts consumers first – and we believe consumers deserve transparency," said HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra. "At HHS, we continue taking unprecedented action to deliver on President Biden's vision. We are pulling back the curtain and letting the sunshine in on hospital and nursing home ownership because it is what the public deserves. As we work to expand access to high-quality, affordable healthcare, we will make sure there is transparency to ensure that facilities are held accountable and people can make the best-informed decisions on their care."
 

Twitter: @JELagasse
Email the writer: Jeff.Lagasse@himssmedia.com