Opinion: Revealing the secret prices insurers pay can save health care
A bold proposal to publish tightly held secrets about health care prices could unleash the power of markets to lower health care costs.
The Department of Health and Human Services has released a request for information on a proposal to create public access to real price information in health care under the regulatory framework of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). Unlike the mandate earlier this year from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services that requires hospitals to publish their so-called chargemaster prices, the HHS proposal would shed light on the secret negotiated prices insurance companies pay.
Making these prices public would infuse much-needed competition into health care’s bloated $3.5 trillion market.
Why hasn’t this happened already? Insurers and hospitals keep the prices they negotiate confidential. Insurers then sell these secret pricing deals
