eAlert Thu, 02/07/2019 - 12:00

This year, in an effort to promote competition and consumer price-shopping, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is requiring hospitals to post a list of their standard charges online and to update this information at least annually.

In his latest piece for the Wall Street Journal’s “The Experts,” Commonwealth Fund President David Blumenthal, M.D., unpacks what the guidelines mean for consumer empowerment.

“While the guidelines may give patients more information, that information may be more confusing than clarifying,” Blumenthal writes. Giving people what they need to be smart purchasers of health care will likely prove a multiyear project that starts with a focus on well-defined services like knee replacements, he says.

hospital price transparency_1x1 Read the post Why the Cost of Health Care Is So Hard to Understand, and What to Do About It