This won't be effective unless the hospital is required to provide prices whenever people ask, such as requesting an estimate from your car mechanic. And not only providing the prices but being required to honor the price they give you, with some reasonable threshold of variance.
These hospitals posting their prices reminds me of this classic section of "The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy":
"But the plans were on display..."
"On display? I eventually had to go down to the cellar to find them."
"That’s the display department."
"With a flashlight."
"Ah, well, the lights had probably gone."
"So had the stairs."
"But look, you found the notice, didn’t you?"
"Yes," said Arthur, "yes I did. It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying 'Beware of the Leopard.'
It's meaningless unless you can get a price before you get services.
The trouble is even if the price list says $500 for something, they'll charge you $8000 for "general classification" and $2000 for a Tylenol.
I have a remote heart monitor at my bedside that, upon pressing a button, wirelessly retrieves data about arrythmia incidents from my implanted defibrillator and sends any incidents to the hospital. Every time I hit the button, even if there are ZERO incidents for them to review, I get hit with a $300 bill for some "general classification". So I hit the button less often than I'm supposed to.
Come in unconscious and bleeding out from a car wreck: "No, no, no.. take me to the other hospital with lower prices. And I don't want $100 acetaminophen."
Not all hospital visits are emergencies. I had an implanted defibrillator replaced recently. It's a life-saving device but I had a 3-month window to do it, so I most definitely picked "the other hospital" that I didn't have billing issues with the last time.
Also, a car wreck should not be a reason to nickel-and-dime someone unreasonably. And if I knew they were giving me acetominaphen for $1000 and I could wait it out for an hour I'd 100% refuse it and ask a family member to bring me some from Walgreen's for <$10. I'm not exactly swimming in money here.
These hospitals posting their prices reminds me of this classic section of "The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy":
"But the plans were on display..."
"On display? I eventually had to go down to the cellar to find them."
"That’s the display department."
"With a flashlight."
"Ah, well, the lights had probably gone."
"So had the stairs."
"But look, you found the notice, didn’t you?"
"Yes," said Arthur, "yes I did. It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying 'Beware of the Leopard.'