Florida's governor is taking aim at hospitals that he said may be fleecing you by not being up-front about what they charge for treatment.
Governor Rick Scott was at the Greater Naples Chamber of Commerce Monday, where he said he wants to see more transparency in hospital costs. He said he is proposing legislation that would require hospitals to post their prices for treatments online.
"When you go to a grocery store, you know what things cost," Scott said. "When a hospital buys things - when they buy supplies - they know what things cost. Shouldn't the patients know what things cost, so they can make an informed decision?"
Hans Bartels of Naples said that he was shocked at how much his wife's visit to a hospital in Southwest Florida cost in 2014, after showing signs of a high fever from an infection.
"She spent two nights in the hospital," Bartels said. "They really didn't do much. They forced an X-ray. We said, 'we don't really need an X-ray because we know what's wrong.' And the bill came to over $30,000."
He wouldn't say which hospital they visited. Scott said that kind of sticker shock can be avoided.
"We've got to get the cost of health care under control," he said. "Our hospitals should not be price-gouging."
Lee Memorial Health System released a statement to Fox 4, saying that they've been cost-transparent for years.
"We started posting average charges for common procedures on our Web site about 8 or 10 years ago," wrote spokesperson Mary Briggs. "And we provide patients with cost estimates upon request."
Fox 4 requested comment from Naples Community Hospital and Physician's Regional Healthcare System, but have not yet heard back from them.
