This is made possible thanks to the current administration’s CMS price transparency rule which went into effect Jan 1,2021 http://www.cms.gov/hospital-price-transparency Edit: By “current” I mean the Trump administration.
Out of curiosity, how much will this reduce the cost of health care? The idea, as it's been explained to me, is that visibility into the cost of medical care will result in downward price pressure. How much?
You as a consumer now have the ability to search, but do you have an incentive to do so? Do the savings come to you?
Some of it, perhaps. But it's likely not that much and only under some circumstances.
E.g., if you are just faced w/ a copay on a visit, your copay is going to be the same at two facilities.
Coinsurance is different - there you may realize some savings. IF you are below your deductible for the year that is also different. You may realize savings and care.
But there are a decent number of patients who for most of their visits will not see much incentive to search.
Also... it is possible for these releases to help hospitals coordinate on prices in a way which they currently do not. (Tacit collusion, not explicit, back-room, definitely-illegal collusion.)
Hospital A now knows exactly what Hospital B gets from Aetna, so Hospital A may realize it can hold out for more w/ Aetna b/c Aetna is willing to pay their competitor more for the same procedure.
Both of these questions are above all empirical questions and one to which we do not yet know the answer. I would be wary of confident predictions.