Trump issues executive order on healthcare price transparency
The administration is decrying what it calls 'hidden' prices and 'opaque' pricing arrangements.
Photo: Walter Bibikow/Getty Images
President Donald Trump has signed an executive order stipulating that federal agencies should reinforce rules, set forth in a previous order, requiring health insurers and providers to disclose healthcare prices more transparently.
The regulations, established in the previous order during Trump's first term in 2019, will be enforced by the Departments of Treasury, Labor and Health and Human Services, the White House said.
The administration decried what it called "hidden" prices and said that "opaque" pricing arrangements have allowed hospitals and insurance companies to operate without sufficient accountability, leading to patients shouldering the burden of healthcare costs.
WHAT'S THE IMPACT?
The original regulations introduced during Trump's first term required hospitals to maintain a consumer-friendly display of pricing information for up to 300 shoppable services, and a machine-readable file with negotiated rates for its services.
They also imposed requirements on health plans. Plans are tasked with posting their negotiated rates with providers, as well as their out-of-network payments to providers, and the actual prices they or their pharmacy benefit manager pay for prescription drugs. They're also required to maintain a consumer-facing internet tool through which people can access pricing information.
The new order requires the federal agencies to ensure that insurers and providers disclose actual prices and not estimates, and that prices be comparable across hospitals and insurers, including prescription drug prices."
The order also updates federal enforcement policies to ensure price transparency compliance.
"The Federal Government will continue to promote universal access to clear and accurate healthcare prices and will take all necessary steps to improve existing price transparency requirements," the White House wrote.
THE LARGER TREND
When Trump issued his original price transparency order in 2019, provider and payer groups came out against it, saying it could have the effect of raising prices.
"Publicly posting privately negotiated rates could, in fact, undermine the competitive forces of private market dynamics, and result in increased prices," said American Hospital Association President and CEO Rick Pollack at the time.
AHIP said posting the rates could reduce competition and push prices higher, while AARP said it supported the president's efforts to create transparency and lower healthcare costs.
Jeff Lagasse is editor of Healthcare Finance News.
Email: jlagasse@himss.org
Healthcare Finance News is a HIMSS Media publication.
