Thousands of hospitals in the United States will need to release data on who owns them and just what the nature of that ownership entails, thanks to an executive order by President Biden that those data for all Medicare-certified hospitals must be made public.

The information will be placed on the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) website.

David Cutler, Ph.D., an internationally known healthcare economics expert, told Fierce Healthcare that the move is “valuable.” He added: “By itself, it’s just one piece of the [transparency] puzzle. But solving a puzzle requires going step by step.”

Michael Millenson, an internationally known expert on quality and care, told Fierce Healthcare that he agrees with Cutler that it’s a step in the right direction and that healthcare transparency is a worthwhile goal. However, Millenson doesn’t think the hospital information will be all that useful to individuals.

“It may be useful for a community to understand what hospitals are owned by whom,” said Millenson. “It’s not that much new information for the hospital. There’s no secret hospital ownership. And if it is secret ownership, what good does it do you to find out that it’s owned by, to make up a name, 2575 Park Avenue Trust?”

Hospital ownership information can be found on the IRS Form 990 for all to see.

“What are they telling you that you couldn’t just find in an internet search?” said Millenson.

Almost all hospitals accept Medicare patients, though the exact number of hospitals in the U.S. depends on who’s counting. The CMS press release announcing the hospital transparency initiative states that because of it “anyone will be able to review detailed information on the ownership of more than 7,000 hospitals certified to participate in the Medicare program.”

In the CMS press release the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra said that the government is “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 health care, 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.”

An American Hospital Association spokesperson says that “we are reviewing this announcement in more detail. We note that much of this data is already available and so we cannot speculate on its usefulness for patients and consumers. We look forward to continuing to work with the administration to ensure that all patients and their families have the information they need to make informed decisions about their care.”

Today’s action mirrors the Biden administration’s effort this year to create more transparency in the nursing home industry, resulting in the release of ownership data on over 15,000 nursing homes and skilled nursing facilities. The data also included information on mergers, acquisitions, and consolidations of those facilities going back to 2016.

Millenson said that the move makes more sense for nursing homes. For instance, when the Little Sisters of the Poor had to sell St. Joseph’s Home for the Aged in Richmond, Va., to a private equity company, that’s information that the community and individuals needed to know.

“For a nursing home, it tells you something that even though the name may look like it’s a nonprofit, it’s actually for-profit,” said Millenson. “So that’s a little better. But it doesn’t necessarily tell you anything about quality, but maybe it does get you to ask some questions.”

According to the directive announced today, Medicare-certified hospitals will have to disclose:

  • The organization’s name, type, practice location addresses (including satellite facilities), National Provider Identifier (NPI), CMS Certification Number (CCN).
  • Exactly who owns the hospital. Is it an individual or an organization? Is it directly owned, or is there a subsidiary between the owner and the provider?
  • An ID for each owner with links to the enrollment file.

The press release said that “making facility ownership information transparent benefits researchers and enforcement agencies by allowing them to identify common owners that have had histories of poor performance, to analyze data and trends on how market consolidation impacts consumers with increased costs, without necessarily improving quality of care, and to evaluate the relationships between ownership and changes in health care costs and outcomes."

"Transparent ownership data benefits the public by assisting patients, and their loved ones, in making more informed decisions about care. HHS plans to analyze these data to identify ways to inform policy approaches that can improve competition in health care, a key priority for the Biden-Harris administration," CMS said in the release.