In 2011 I had major surgery. The hospital first billed the insurance company for $100,000. The insurance company then paid $20,000. Of course, the insurance rate was negotiated in advance. There was no reason to bill for 5x the negotiated rate. IMO: We need to start fining hospitals for billing errors like this.
I'm sure they play tons of games so it's not considered an error. That said, the government needs to step in and set prices for health care. The free market has failed, in this case. Nobody can afford to shop around for a cheaper health care provider in an emergency, and even then there's no real competition.
I don't see this working without other substantial changes. They do this with Medicaid and Medicare already. The reimbursement rate is pretty low and the actual costs of some services actually exceed the payment. Without fully going to a government run system, I don't think setting standard prices will work well due to the quality and cost differences from location to location.
A better solution might be some sort of truth in advertising/billing that changes how the providers and insurance companies run that process, like presenting actual cost of care, actual payment by insurance, and protecting individuals from any charge that exceeds the cost of care plus some profit limit like 2%. I'm sure there are a lot of details to prevent loopholes, but that's my general view.