[PragmaticPulp]

They have to reveal their prices now. It's part of a bill that the Trump administration passed in 2019: https://www.cnbc.com/2019/11/15/trump-releases-rule-requirin...

From the article:

> As of Jan. 1, hospitals must publicly reveal the negotiated rates reached with insurers for services, a landmark shift in the sector notoriously opaque when it comes to pricing. The data offer a peek behind the curtain, exposing prices long kept a secret.

The catch is that they can't guarantee what services you'll receive. If you have complications after your inpatient surgery, the price is going to be higher than the estimate due to additional services.

[gzer0]

The Affordable Care Act laid the framework to allow for this to happen, under the “Sunshine Provisions”

[1] https://www.commonwealthfund.org/blog/2014/affordable-care-a...

[refurb]

Your article talks a lot about data but nothing about the negotiated rates with insurers.

[spaetzleesser]

The Affordable Care Act had some good intentions but they had no courage to make the hard decisions.Trump was terrible for health care in many ways but forcing hospitals to open up their pricing was a very good thing.

I am just a little afraid that they will find other ways to obscure things quickly.

[OgAstorga]

Please don’t make this political.

[caslon]

How is that political? I found it interesting to see the (long) process to get where we are.

[darkwizard42]

I don't think that applied as broadly as people think. I had to remove screws and a plate from my leg in NYC at a fairly large hospital so I went through what I thought was a pretty straightforward process.

1/ Got the procedure codes from the doctor

2/ Got the doctor's estimated billing for those codes

3/ Reviewed my insurance information and in/out network status and then called up the insurance company to confirm the amount they would reimburse for those codes

They REFUSED to give me a clean $ number on how much they would pay of the bill that the doctor would give me. The bill from the doctor was high so naturally I wanted to know the true cost that I might be stuck with and the insurance company just wouldn't give a straight answer.

Naturally if there are complications and you have to have new procedures then it makes sense to me the price could go up, but for a straight procedure code to price transparency there doesn't seem to be any change in my personal experience