Hospital Facts: Consumer Action for a Strong Economy (CASE) Launches New Initiative to Fight Waste, Fraud, Abuse at Hospitals
ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 18, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Consumer Action for a Strong Economy (CASE) launched Hospital Facts, a new consumer watchdog initiative dedicated to exposing waste, fraud, and abuse by hospitals.
"We are dedicated to providing taxpayers, patients, consumers, journalists, and any interested parties with facts and evidence about hospitals' pricing overages and their lack of cost transparency for consumers," said CASE President Matthew Kandrach. "While most conversations concerning healthcare costs are fixated on drug manufacturers, hospitals are in fact one of the biggest drivers of rising healthcare costs and one of the largest perpetrators of waste, fraud, and abuse in the American healthcare system."
Between 2000 and 2022, the price of hospital services increased by over 220% - four times as fast as national inflation rates. This is greater than all other goods and services categories. While this has been explained away by increased labor costs due to the Covid pandemic, increased prices for hospital services have outpaced other medical sector professional services since 2006.
Disconcertingly, hospitals have gone as far as to take advantage of Military insurance, overbill insurance providers for routine care, charge an average of 2.5 times more for identical outpatient procedures depending on the service site, and charge insured patients more than uninsured patients.
As most hospitals are non-profit, tax-exempt institutions, American taxpayers are ultimately footing the bill for hospital price gouging. Despite efforts from President Trump to increase hospital price transparency starting in his first administration, a recent report found that 8 in 10 hospitals were out of compliance with federal transparency requirements.
"As the U.S. Senate deliberates the reconciliation bill, eliminating hospital waste, fraud, and abuse should be a part of the conversation around savings," said Mr. Kandrach. "Hospitals, operating with little to no oversight, have been taking advantage of consumers and the wider healthcare system for too long, and the non-profit hospitals are some of the worst offenders, which we are bringing to light with Hospital Facts."
In conjunction with the launch of Hospital Facts, Mr. Kandrach also sent letters to lawmakers on Capitol Hill (click here to view letter).
To learn more, visit HospitalFacts.org.
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SOURCE Consumer Action for a Strong Economy (CASE)
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