PRICE TRANSPARENCY REVIEW 2026-09-14
PRICE TRANSPARENCY REVIEW · Freeman Health System

Freeman Health System

Two files cover all four Freeman hospitals, both still on last year's format, and fewer than 1 in 15 rows in either one carries an actual price.

Measured from Freeman Health System's own published price transparency files under 45 CFR Part 180.50, retrieved Sep 14, 2026, and cross-checked against CMS's public Hospital Enrollments, Provider of Services, and Price Transparency Enforcement datasets.

Facilities4
Files retrieved2026-09-14T22:10:00Z UTC
Measured againsteCFR current to 2026-09-01
Prepared bySuperscript
5.5%
of rows carry a payer-specific rate at Freeman West/East's file (764 of 13,810)
3.0%
of rows carry a payer-specific rate at the file serving Neosho and Fort Scott (201 of 6,702)
v2.2.0
schema version on both files — CMS has required v3.0 since April 2026
3 of 4
facilities with an open CMS warning notice, all opened within two days of each other in June 2026
01The portfolio§180.20, §180.30
FacilityLegal entityLocationCCNType BedsOwnershipMedicare since
Freeman Hospital WestFreeman-Oak Hill Health SystemJoplin, MO260137Acute410Voluntary nonprofit — CMS control-type code 02
Freeman Hospital East (per cms-hpt.txt)Freeman-Oak Hill Health System (rehab + psych units of CCN 260137)Joplin, MO26S137 / 26T137 (subunits, same CCN as West)Rehab + Psych unitSame as Freeman Hospital West
Freeman Neosho HospitalFreeman Neosho HospitalNeosho, MO261331Acute25Voluntary nonprofit — CMS control-type code 02
Freeman Fort Scott HospitalFreeman Fort Scott Hospital IncFort Scott, KS170210AcuteDistinct corporate entity from the Missouri facilities

Freeman Hospital East has no independent CMS hospital enrollment: CMS's Hospital Enrollments file shows only a rehabilitation unit (26S137) and a psychiatric unit (26T137) at the Joplin East campus, both filed under Freeman Hospital West's own CCN (260137). Freeman Fort Scott Hospital, by contrast, is a distinct CCN (170210) under a separate legal entity (“Freeman Fort Scott Hospital Inc”) in a different state — yet its price transparency file is entirely Freeman Neosho Hospital's, which is addressed in Section 02.

02What’s published today§180.50(d), schema v3.0
FacilityHost domaincms-hpt.txtFilenameSchema Last updatedHTTP last-modType 2 NPIAttester PayersRowsRows w/ rate
Freeman Hospital Westfreemanhealth.comYESfreeman-health-system---freeman-west2.2.02025-05-01Mon, 28 Apr 2025NO20713,810764
Freeman Hospital East (per cms-hpt.txt)freemanhealth.comYESfreeman-health-system---freeman-west (shared with West)2.2.02025-05-01Mon, 28 Apr 2025NO20713,810764
Freeman Neosho Hospitalfreemanhealth.comYESfreeman-neosho-hospital2.2.02025-05-01Mon, 28 Apr 2025NO6,702201
Freeman Fort Scott Hospitalfreemanhealth.comYESfreeman-neosho-hospital (shared, names Neosho only)2.2.02025-05-01Mon, 28 Apr 2025NO6,702201
Freeman Hospital West and Freeman Hospital East (per cms-hpt.txt) point at the identical filecleverleypteusstatic.blob.core.windows.net/.../431704371_freeman-health-system---freeman-west_standardcharges.json (the file's own hospital_name field: “Freeman Health System - Freeman West” only)
Freeman Neosho Hospital and Freeman Fort Scott Hospital point at the identical filecleverleypteusstatic.blob.core.windows.net/.../431240629_freeman-neosho-hospital_standardcharges.json (the file's own hospital_name field: “Freeman Neosho Hospital” only)

SHARE OF EACH FILE CARRYING A PAYER-SPECIFIC RATE

Freeman Neosho Hospital / Fort Scott (shared file)
3%
Freeman West / East (shared file)
6%
03The charge file§180.50
GAP (2)

Both files are still on the pre-CY2026 schema, more than a year after publishing

Both files declare version: 2.2.0. CMS has required the newer v3.0 schema, with the median/10th/90th percentile fields sourced from 835 remittance data, since 4/1/2026. Neither file has been rebuilt to the new format, and both carry a last_updated_on of 2025-05-01 — over 16 months old as of this review, which matches the HTTP last-modified date on both files almost exactly.

Only a small fraction of rows in either file carry a real payer-specific rate

The West/East file has 764 of 13,810 rows (5.5%) with a negotiated rate, algorithm, or percentage from a named payer; the Neosho/Fort Scott file has 201 of 6,702 (3.0%). The rest are gross charge and discounted cash price only. For a patient trying to find out what their own plan would actually owe, that number is missing on more than 19 out of 20 lines.

WATCH (1)

Freeman Fort Scott Hospital's own file never mentions Fort Scott

Fort Scott is a separately CMS-enrolled hospital (CCN 170210) under a distinct legal entity, “Freeman Fort Scott Hospital Inc,” in a different state from the rest of the system. Its cms-hpt.txt entry points at the identical file used for Freeman Neosho Hospital, and that file's own hospital_name field reads “Freeman Neosho Hospital” with no reference to Fort Scott anywhere in it. If Fort Scott's own charges were ever meant to be represented separately, they don't appear to be in what's currently published.

CLEAR (1)

West and East campus files are internally consistent with each other

Unlike the Neosho/Fort Scott pairing, the West/East file's own attestation is at least self-consistent: CMS enrollment shows East operating as a rehab and psychiatric unit of West's own CCN, and the shared file reflects that same combined structure rather than misrepresenting a separate legal entity.

04Enforcement record§180.70, .80, .90
2023-01-18
Freeman Hospital West — Warning Notice issued (case 94)
2023-05-12
Freeman Hospital West — Closure Notice (case closed) (case 94)
2025-05-28
Freeman Hospital West — Warning Notice issued (case 4687)
2025-08-28
Freeman Hospital West — Closure Notice (case closed) (case 4687)
2026-06-24
Freeman Hospital West — Warning Notice issued — open, no closure recorded as of the CMS dataset's July 2026 refresh (case 8112)
2025-05-12
Freeman Hospital East — Warning Notice issued (case 4440)
2025-08-14
Freeman Hospital East — Closure Notice (case closed) (case 4440)
2026-06-25
Freeman Hospital East — Warning Notice issued — open, no closure recorded as of the CMS dataset's July 2026 refresh (case 7907)
2025-05-14
Freeman Neosho Hospital — Warning Notice issued (case 4509)
2025-08-15
Freeman Neosho Hospital — Closure Notice (case closed) (case 4509)
05Open questions
01

Is Freeman Fort Scott Hospital's own charge data represented anywhere in what's currently published, under any file?

If not, patients and referring providers at a legitimately separate, differently-owned hospital have no way to see Fort Scott's own prices at all — only Neosho's.

02

Why did Freeman Hospital West, Freeman Hospital East, and Fresno's separate CMS cases all open within roughly two days of each other in June 2026?

A near-simultaneous portfolio-wide action usually means a single underlying cause (a schema or reporting change CMS flagged system-wide) rather than three unrelated misses — worth knowing before treating them as separate problems.

03

Is there a rebuild of these files already planned to bring them to the CY2026 v3.0 schema?

If a rebuild is already underway, the payer-rate coverage gap may be addressed as part of it. If not, the current files will remain out of the newer format indefinitely.

Reproducibility
06Method & sources

FLAGGED, NOT ASSERTED — COULD NOT BE VERIFIED FROM OUTSIDE THE ORGANIZATION