551-6

Assignment Lesson 6

Part 1

a. No

b. I cannot tell since I did not find what I was looking for

c. I would rather light my hair on fire

Part 2

The arguments are not persuasive. After reading the letter, I expected to identify the practical challenges that health care facilities have encountered in the course of implementing the CMS hospital price transparency rule. However, there is no single mention of the challenges that these facilities have encountered so far. Furthermore, it appears that most of the health care facilities within the US have not made an attempt to make the pricing information public.

According to American Hospital Association, doctors, nurses and other essential personnel have prioritized taking care of the COVID-19 patients and, thus, may not have time to comply with this final rule as they would get overwhelmed. While this is true, it should not be an excuse for the health care facilities failing to comply with the rule. All that this price transparency final rule requires is for the facilities to update their website and include the information making it easily accessible to the public. From my point of view, this is not a tedious exercise that can distract the essential workers from taking care of COVID-19 related cases. It is critical to note that the facilities already have this information within their systems it is only that the public cannot access it. Because they already have the pricing information needed, all they need to do is make it public. Therefore, the arguments of American Hospital Association are not persuasive.