Federal agency knocks these South Florida hospitals for price transparency errors
The Trump administration has sent letters to over 500 hospitals, including several in South Florida, related to issues involving price transparency disclosures of common procedures and treatments.
Baptist Hospital at 8900 N. Kendall Drive, part of the region’s largest not-for-profit health system, is one of the Florida hospitals that received a warning letter, according to the Associated Press, which exclusively obtained the hospital list.
Other South Florida hospitals on the list include Douglas Gardens Hospital, 5200 NE Second Ave. in Miami, part of Miami Jewish Health; Fort Lauderdale Behavioral Health Center, 5757 N. Dixie Highway in Oakland Park; St. Catherine’s Rehabilitation Hospital, 1050 NE 25th St. in North Miami, part of Catholic Health System; and the DePoo medical building, 1200 Kennedy Drive in Key West, which houses behavioral health and rehabilitation services for the Lower Keys Medical Center.
What South Florida hospitals say
The Lower Keys Medical Center, Fort Lauderdale Behavioral Health Center and Catholic Health System all told the Miami Herald in emails Wednesday that the facilities were flagged by the federal U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) due to since-fixed technical issues related to updated reporting requirements.
Baptist Health South Florida, which operates Baptist Hospital, alluded to a similar reason in its statement, explaining that while it does routine reviews to ensure its information is up-to-date and accurate, sometimes, it “may receive periodic feedback from CMS regarding technical or formatting elements.”
“When that occurs, like it did in this case, we address any issues promptly according to CMS guidance,” Baptist Health wrote. The health system said that while it has hospital-specific pricing and out-of-pocket pricing estimators for select services on its website, it recommends people contact its central pricing office for “the most accurate, personalized estimates based on individual insurance coverage and clinical needs.”
Lower Keys Medical Center, in its email, said it’s published pricing information for years on its website and that “updated requirements in 2026 require that very specific components be added to the code underlying the posted information, which is what triggered the notification from CMS.”
“We took immediate action to correct this technical issue and CMS has accepted the correction,” the medical center wrote.
Manny Llano, the CEO of Fort Lauderdale Behavioral Health Center, similarly told the Herald that it “received notice of three technical issues dealing with the manner” in which the hospital “was identified and one revenue code not properly listed” following the recently updated reporting requirements.
“All pricing information was provided as required. Upon notification, we reviewed the matter, implemented the necessary technical corrections, and are in full compliance with applicable requirements,” Llano wrote. “Fort Lauderdale Behavioral Health Center has received notice of successful resolution from CMS.”
At Catholic Health Services, spokesperson Rose Lugo told the Herald that the health system “promptly reviewed our pricing and billing information and implemented updates to both our patient-facing materials and online resources accordingly” after being notified about the technical change.
“Transparency is an important component of the patient experience and informed decision-making. Our priority remains ensuring that those entrusted to our care have access to the medical services they need. Having the information necessary to navigate their healthcare costs is an important part of this process,” Lugo wrote.
Miami Jewish Health, which operates Douglas Gardens Hospital, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In total, there were 21 medical facilities across Florida, including hospitals, behavioral health and rehabilitation centers, that since April received either a warning letter or, in more severe cases, requests to submit plans to provide transparent pricing, according to the AP. Failure to comply could come with penalties as high as $2 million annually.
An anonymous senior administration official who provided the list to the AP told the news outlet that the letters are part of the Trump administration’s plans to tighten enforcement of price transparency standards and comes on the heels of a 2019 executive order Trump signed that required hospitals to disclose upfront the actual prices for common tests and procedures to help keep costs down for families.
What to know about hospital price transparency
A federal rule requires hospitals to provide “consumer-friendly” price information online — both for people with accepted health insurances and the cash price for people without health insurance — for the 300 most common procedures and services the facility offers, according to Patricia Kelmar, senior director of healthcare campaigns at PIRG, a nonprofit that advocates for consumer protections, public health and environmental sustainability.
Hospitals may choose to present that information as a downloadable PDF or list. Others might prefer to make their own webpage to reflect the prices. Sometimes, patients will be required to get something called a CPT code from their provider in order to see the negotiated rates.
Kelmar said patients should remember that the cost they see for an individual procedure, such as a knee replacement, likely does not include the cost of anesthesia and other associated items and services. That means patients still won’t know the full cost until the bill hits. But it’s a starting point, she said.
One tip: If you’re planning to pay in cash, ask for a “good-faith estimate” for how much the planned procedure or surgery will be, Kelmar said. If the final bill turns out to be $400 or more over the estimate, patients can dispute it under the federal No Surprises Act.
For Dr. Olveen Carrasquillo, a health policy expert at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, the posted prices are more useful to insurance companies — and people who work in hospital billing departments and are involved in contract negotiations — than patients trying to find affordable care.
Some “proactive” hospitals may ask patients for health insurance information to help provide a more accurate cost upfront for procedures. But in general, the prices hospitals post online are usually inflated and show how much each individual hospital charges for a specific procedure, not how much insurers actually pay or what patients would need to pay out of pocket, according to Carrasquillo.
Procedures are often listed with codes and abbreviations, which makes it difficult for patients to search the files. He said none of it is very helpful for patients, who want to know how much they need to pay and, if they have health insurance, also want to know whether the hospital is in network or not.
It’s an attempt to say “we’re doing something about prices when you’re really not,” said Carrasquillo, associate dean for clinical and translational research at UM’s medical school and co-director of the school’s Clinical and Translational Science Institute. “Let’s deal with health insurance being so expensive. Let’s deal with ways to extend insurance coverage. ... The problem is, people can’t afford healthcare. That is the problem that we’re trying to solve, and this really doesn’t go about solving the problem.”
This story was originally published June 11, 2026 at 3:24 PM.
