Hospitals May Have To Report Prices Negotiated With The Insurers

As per some reliable sources, the Trump administration has proposed a rule where the hospitals need to publicize the negotiated prices with the insurers. The decision intends to promote price transparency and allows customers to benefit from healthcare services. The Director of outreach and public affairs quoted that it is a huge step towards true pricing transparency.

This policy is under the umbrella of a broader rule proposed for patient data by the Health and Human Services Department. As on January 1, 2019, the administration has stated hospitals to post the stocker prices on the websites of the hospitals. A certain group of critics has opposed the idea as they believe that the prices are inaccurate because generally the insurers bargain and bring down the prices.

Gerard Anderson, Director of the Johns Hopkins Center had a view that being aware of the charges is irrelevant for most of the people. Standard charges that would be publicized by the hospitals do not reflect the actual care services they would receive.

The policy allows the patients to be aware of the actual cost before availing the service. Such proposed transparency will be seen for the first time. Patients would be able to know how much hospitals are charging and the amount the insurers are actually paying for the health care services.

The report on health market issued in December by the administration indicates that such measure includes penalties for non-compliance; hence it would increase pricing transparency in the industry. Chip Kahn, President of Federation of American Hospitals explained in an interview that it is mandatory for hospitals to adhere to the rules to promote transparency. The motive is to bring both the insurers and patients on the same page because the insurers have the data to compute the costs for the patients.