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Tennessee Conservative News [By Olivia Lupia] –
Nine Middle Tennessee hospitals in the Nashville area have been named in a new report by a healthcare watchdog group as failing to comply with federal price transparency requirements, all of which received warning letters from the Trump administration earlier this year.
Hospital Watch is dedicated to “exposing corporate hospitals’ monopolistic practices in price gouging patients with excessive markups and hidden fees with no transparency while forcing patients and employers to pay more for their care.” The group puts Tennessee in a “Code Red” category and reports that on average, Tennessee hospitals charge patients 242% more than Medicare and 130% more than their commercial breakeven cost.
They also note that in recent years, only 12% of Tennessee hospitals surveyed were found compliant with federal price transparency regulations, and 54.8% of hospitals in the state are either in a highly concentrated market or a monopoly, which drives up premiums and out-of-pocket costs.
“The hospital market in the Nashville area is dominated by a handful of powerful systems,” Adam Buckalew, spokesperson for Hospital Watch, said. “When hospitals buy up competitors and face little real competition, patients lose. Prices go up, premiums rise, and families are left with medical bills they cannot afford.”
The Trump administration recently sent warning letters to over 500 hospitals, including 16 in Tennessee, for failure to provide basic pricing information to the public as the administration works to crack down on transparency enforcement to prevent families from suffering caused by unexpected medical expenses. All nine facilities mentioned in the Hospital Watch report were among those 16, indicating they may not be responsive to the federal pressure or are still working to come into compliance.
Those hospitals named in the report are:
- Ascension Saint Thomas Midtown Hospital
- Ascension Saint Thomas Three Rivers
- Cookeville Regional Medical Center
- Riverview Regional Medical Center
- Rolling Hills Hospital
- Saint Thomas Hospital for Specialty Surgery
- Sumner Regional Medical Center
- Trousdale Medical Center
- Williamson Medical Center
“Failing to comply with the warnings comes with penalties as high as $2 million annually for each recipient that doesn’t create a plan to post clear pricing data,” the AP reported.
Ascension, which owns several hospitals listed on the report, said in a statement they had a technical error which has been fixed and that the company “adheres to federal price transparency regulations and works diligently with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to ensure ongoing compliance… The recent CMS warning letters identified a minor technical error in a specific subset of our facilities’ files. This technical error was resolved pursuant to CMS’ guidelines. The integrity of our pricing data has never been disputed by CMS. We are committed to providing patients and their families with the information they need to make informed decisions about their healthcare, including access to up-to-date pricing information.”
Williamson Medical Center said they had a “broken link” that has also since been fixed while Cookeville Regional Medical Center stated that a vendor was responsible for their briefly falling out of compliance.
“When AP News first reported in June that hospitals had received federal warnings, Cookeville Regional Medical Center had already implemented all federal price transparency requirements. However, the vendor we use for this function was unable to meet a recent federally required change, which temporarily put us out of compliance. That issue has since been resolved, and on July 16, 2026, CMS notified us in writing that the deficiencies identified in our warning notice have been fully rectified and that our compliance review is closed. The closure notice predates Hospital Watch’s report by nearly a week, and we remain committed to full compliance with all CMS Hospital Price Transparency requirements…including any new requirements that take effect in the future,” read a statement from Cookeville Regional Medical Center.
Patients have the right by law to call and ask their hospital where prices are listed, which is a separate resource from an estimate calculator. Hospital Watch also recommends reaching out to state lawmakers and asking them to help enforce these rules.
“Unfortunately, a lot of corporate hospital systems have become effectively hedge funds with hospital beds. And what they are doing is making it as opaque and as challenging as possible for the very patients that they serve to simply, out of fairness, know the costs that they will pay,” Buckalew said.
About the Author: Olivia Lupia is a political refugee from Colorado who now calls Tennessee home. A proud follower of Christ, she views all political happenings through a Biblical lens and aims to utilize her knowledge and experience to educate and equip others. Olivia is an outspoken conservative who has run for local office, managed campaigns, and been highly involved with state & local GOPs, state legislatures, and other grassroots organizations and movements. Olivia can be reached at olivia@tennesseeconservativenews.com.
One Response
Thanx.