January 1, 2021, U.S. hospitals are required by federal law to publish their prices online in a machine-readable format to increase transparency. They must disclose gross charges, discounted cash prices, and payer-specific negotiated rates for all items and services, as well as a consumer-friendly list of at least 300 “shoppable” service.
As someone who works in healthcare will this change how deliberately opaque insurances benefits are or will it still be a crapshoot where we have no idea how much the customer will actually pay until after everything is keyed into the system? Most of the time that the price of care seems illusory is because the benefit sheets of different insurance companies use different wordings and codes to describe the same benefits and they also use deliberately obscure terminology around how much they cover and when they do or don’t cover so until that is fixed I don’t really see how this is feasible.
RockieK on
Without insurance costs:
$2,000,000,000,000,000 for surgery + $50,00000000000000000 for a bandaid.
Gonna solve everything! Now we will know ahead of time that we cannot afford treatment and should just prepare to die, or have wages garnished (if we have jobs that haven’t been replaced by AI).
cheweychewchew on
What do you mean “finally” ?
This passed in 2021. Scroll down.
Once again Trump supporters so so desperate for a W.
bonzoboy2000 on
It would also help if people knew what their ailments were before going to the hospital.
dkinmn on
This is idiotic.
Right-Ad2176 on
If we had National Health you would not need to know the price.
Plus the savings by eliminating all the companies making money on your health.
Owl_Resident on
I have to laugh at this. Because the reality is that this is only part of the problem. The other part is what the insurers are doing or not doing. The negotiated rates are different plan to plan, carrier to carrier. What one patient pays will be different to the next, for the same exact surgery, days of stay, drugs, etc.
Hospitals do indeed jack their rates, but this does nothing to reign in the insurers. Also, this passed in 2021.
BraveMango737 on
They would necessarily be accompanied by a dictionary size manual to help you understand the convoluted and deliberately obfuscating numbers pathways and middleman that these funds go through.
LockNo2943 on
“Damn, I can’t afford this. Guess I’ll just go home and die instead.”
Aurora1717 on
They already do that every hospital maintains a charge master and can give you that information. The problem is with the insurance companies. Try regulating them.
14 Comments
That will be awesome being able to shop for low cost services while having a heart attack. Thanks Trimp!
This has been a thing for at least 5 years… what is he talking about? [https://www.aha.org/fact-sheets/2023-02-24-fact-sheet-hospital-price-transparency](https://www.aha.org/fact-sheets/2023-02-24-fact-sheet-hospital-price-transparency)
January 1, 2021, U.S. hospitals are required by federal law to publish their prices online in a machine-readable format to increase transparency. They must disclose gross charges, discounted cash prices, and payer-specific negotiated rates for all items and services, as well as a consumer-friendly list of at least 300 “shoppable” service.
[https://chir.georgetown.edu/hospital-and-insurer-price-transparency-rules-in-effect/](https://chir.georgetown.edu/hospital-and-insurer-price-transparency-rules-in-effect/)
[https://www.cms.gov/priorities/key-initiatives/hospital-price-transparency](https://www.cms.gov/priorities/key-initiatives/hospital-price-transparency)
I can think of nothin more meaningless
As someone who works in healthcare will this change how deliberately opaque insurances benefits are or will it still be a crapshoot where we have no idea how much the customer will actually pay until after everything is keyed into the system? Most of the time that the price of care seems illusory is because the benefit sheets of different insurance companies use different wordings and codes to describe the same benefits and they also use deliberately obscure terminology around how much they cover and when they do or don’t cover so until that is fixed I don’t really see how this is feasible.
Without insurance costs:
$2,000,000,000,000,000 for surgery + $50,00000000000000000 for a bandaid.
Gonna solve everything! Now we will know ahead of time that we cannot afford treatment and should just prepare to die, or have wages garnished (if we have jobs that haven’t been replaced by AI).
What do you mean “finally” ?
This passed in 2021. Scroll down.
Once again Trump supporters so so desperate for a W.
It would also help if people knew what their ailments were before going to the hospital.
This is idiotic.
If we had National Health you would not need to know the price.
Plus the savings by eliminating all the companies making money on your health.
I have to laugh at this. Because the reality is that this is only part of the problem. The other part is what the insurers are doing or not doing. The negotiated rates are different plan to plan, carrier to carrier. What one patient pays will be different to the next, for the same exact surgery, days of stay, drugs, etc.
Hospitals do indeed jack their rates, but this does nothing to reign in the insurers. Also, this passed in 2021.
They would necessarily be accompanied by a dictionary size manual to help you understand the convoluted and deliberately obfuscating numbers pathways and middleman that these funds go through.
“Damn, I can’t afford this. Guess I’ll just go home and die instead.”
They already do that every hospital maintains a charge master and can give you that information. The problem is with the insurance companies. Try regulating them.
Unleash the chargemaster!