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Hospitals will be required to post online a list of their standard charges under a rule finalized Thursday by the Trump administration. While hospitals are already required to make this information public on request, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) said the new rule would require the info be posted online to "encourage price transparency" and improve "public accessibility." (Hellmann, 8/3)

Federal health officials reversed course on a plan to withhold public disclosure of hospital infection and safety problems that are the third leading cause of death in the U.S., a new rule announced late Thursday shows. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) said they will publicly report the errors, injuries, and infections the agency proposed removing from one of the public reporting programs. The information will now be published on the federal Hospital Compare site and in a downloadable database and will include the dates and details. (O'Donnell, 8/3)

Now that hospitals' uncompensated-care claims affect how much the federal government pays them, the industry is bracing for heightened scrutiny of its reporting. This is the first fiscal year of a three-year phase-in during which the CMS will use hospitals' charity care and bad debt, together known as uncompensated care, to calculate their disproportionate-share hospital payments. (Bannow, 8/4)

The CMS on Thursday finalized its plan to eliminate the so-called 25% rule that would ding long-term care hospitals' Medicare reimbursement rates. Under the long-postponed policy, if more than a quarter of a long-term care hospital's patients came from a single acute-care hospital, the long-term care hospital would receive a reduced Medicare reimbursement rate for patients exceeding that threshold. (Dickson, 8/2)