Image of hospital costs and costs, with a calculator and stethoscope.
President Trump’s new hospital trials room executive order States federal agencies to enforce regulations that the president took in force in his first term.
Trump’s action reflects a step in the direction of maintaining long-healed regulations, giving patients access to relevant price information to make informed decisions about healthcare. Without strict enforcement and meaningful fines, hospitals will continue to resist transparency at the costs of services provided, which prevented a competitive, value -driven health care market.
The new order gives the departments of Treasury, Labor and HHS 90 days to require hospitals and insurers that they reveal the actual prices, non -estimates, offspring that provide the regulatory action to standardized and easily comparable in hospitals and health plans, and updating enforcement policy for the guaranteeing policy for the guaranteeing policy.
In one White House FactsheetTrump was directly and in the matter: “Our goal was to give patients the knowledge they need about the actual price of healthcare services. They will be able to check, compare them, go to different locations, so that they can shop for the highest quality care at the lowest costs. And this is about high -quality care … you look at comparisons that is very important. And Quality is the only way for patients to understand the value they receive and to compare it with other alternatives.
The move recognizes a harsh reality: hospitals and insurers have repeatedly ignored these regulations, even after losing legal fights that went to the Supreme Court.
Research has consistently demonstrated that most hospitals do not suffice. A recent report From the HHS office of the Inspector General, it turned out that almost half of all hospitals did not meet price transparent requirements. De Biden administration did not To enforce these rules, fine fewer than 20 hospitals from thousands, so that they can circumvent these consumer -oriented regulations with impunity.
Transparency in costs and quality would have a major economic impact on a healthcare sector that continues to see costs rising without a corresponding increase in positive health results. When patients can compare the prices, providers reduce the costs to remain competitive. Empirical evidence demonstrated That when patients use price information, their total payments are lower for common medical services.
We compare the store for everything else – why not healthcare? As I described in my book Bring value for health careNew cars have stickers with information in a standardized format, so that potential buyers can compare one car with the other – because the sticker is required. For the same reason, food packages have food fees and ingredient lists.
When we are looking for a new television or car or groceries – important and sometimes expensive purchases – we behave as informed consumers. We ask questions about product functions and benefits; We compare the store for the best value for our money and negotiate payment conditions to get the best deal.
Why should we not apply the same principles in decisions about our most precious possession – our health? In health care we are expected to make decisions about what kind of operation without having as much as a common format to guide us, and little information about the costs and efficacy of the different options, or if even an operation is needed.
With the regulations for price transparents and maintained, Americans will help to become better patient consumers, able to shop for providers who meet their needs, with relevant data to make informed decisions easily accessible.
Opponents of transparency claim that patients do not have time to shop around when they have a heart attack or another medical emergency. That is of course true, but it misses the point. Transparency is for care that is planned and non-urgent, including MRIs, colonoscopies, knee operations, specialist visits, choice of doctor in primary care and countless other planned medical procedures. These are not an emergency helicopter journeys to the hospital.
When people know that there will be medical costs, which is often the case, they must be able to make an informed financial decision. But transparency should not stop there. Patients not only need clarity, not only on a single isolated transaction, but on the broader costs of managing chronic disorders, coordinating treatments and understanding the total costs of their care over time.
As I said in a previous column, determining price transparency will not cure all the ailments of care, but at a time when the expenditure on health care continues to get out of hand, no entity may ignore both the federal government and the courts by hiding the costs and quality of their services. Price transparency regulations must be strictly maintained. Hospitals have shown that they will not meet otherwise; They must be confronted with real penalties for hiding prices and not reporting about the results they achieve for the patients they treat.
There is no easy solution to take us to a new market -based model in health care, but greater transparency is a central characteristic along the path. The recent executive command of President Trump is a step in the right direction.
It is time for providers and the broader industry for the delivery of care provision to be held responsible for meaningful transparency, so that patients who must be active participants are no longer kept in the dark when taking critical decisions about their health care.