White House seeks disclosure of actual health care prices

New rules from the Trump administration today would require insurers and hospitals to disclose upfront the actual prices for common tests and procedures to promote competition and push down costs.

But the sweeping changes face stiff pushback from the health care industry. A coalition of major hospital groups quickly announced that hospitals will sue to block key provisions, which in any case don’t take effect immediately.

Even in an ideal world where information flows freely, patients and their families would have to deal with a learning curve to get comfortable with the byzantine world of health care billing. What sounds like the same procedure can have different billing codes depending on factors that may not be apparent to an untrained person.

Speaking at a White House event, President Donald Trump skipped over potential difficulties, at times making it sound like openness in health care is a done deal.

“After many years, we will have transparency,” Trump said. “Within about 12 months I think it will be fully implemented.” He predicted “a tremendous impact on prices.”

A final rule issued Friday would apply to hospitals and a separate proposed regulation would apply to insurance plans. Disclosure requirements for hospitals would not take effect until 2021; for insurers, the timing is unclear. The requirements do not directly affect doctors. 

A federal rule went into effect in January of this year that required hospitals to create a publicly accessible master list of prices to increase transparency, but it is not easy for a layperson to determine what the items listed actually are. The new policy would go further and make the information more readily available to patients. 

Local hospital leaders said in January, that while pricing is a major factor, it should not be the only thing patients consider when making health care decisions. Here are some of Baton Rouge’s master lists:
• Baton Rouge General’s price list can be found here, under the “hospital charges” link in the insurance section.
• Our Lady of the Lake’s price list can be found here.
• Ochsner Baton Rouge’s price list can be found here, under the “download” link near the bottom of the page.
• Woman’s Hospital’s price list can be found here, under the “chargemaster” link.   

Read the full story about the latest changes, would put pricing even more upfront.