Hospitals release lists of retail prices for services

It shouldn't matter these aren't he "real" prices, as so many folks have been quick to point out. But it's the starting point for what ever you think the "real" price is, and it's information that has never been easily accessible to the public until now. A̶n̶d̶ ̶i̶t̶'̶s̶,̶ ̶m̶o̶s̶t̶ ̶c̶e̶r̶t̶a̶i̶n̶l̶y̶ ̶a̶ ̶r̶e̶a̶l̶ ̶p̶r̶i̶c̶e̶ ̶i̶f̶ ̶y̶o̶u̶ ̶h̶a̶v̶e̶ ̶n̶o̶ ̶i̶n̶s̶u̶r̶a̶n̶c̶e̶.̶ Maybe not? Some are saying this isn't always the case in certain instances

We are all about markets in this country, so now it will be much easier to determine if a facilities prices are out of whack with its peers in it's local market. I don't know how much normal people will actually use this on a day to day, but I'd imagine this will open the door to some new services / products that could help regular people parse the data.

I hate that people think this is a bad thing. The comment thread in the story about this trending here a couple weeks ago was so dissapointing. It makes sense to hear the hospital executives try to downplay or spin this in a negative light. I suspect some of them are nervous about what will be found... that some shenanigans might be exposed.

I belive easy access to this data to be incredibly valuable. I think it's a win for regular people and the health of our markets. Just because it's not the price I pay after insurance doesn't make it misleading or irrelevant.

Why is this acceptable?

(You aren’t advocating for it, and are only “the messenger”, so I’m not critical of your comment, simply that it even happens.)

I bet if you logged into your health insurance portal you'd find a cost transparency tool that could give you a reasonable estimate of what a common procedure would cost.

The unfortunate truth is price doesn't really matter.

1 - Insurers have negotiated rates with providers. They don't want that information shared.

2 - There aren't that many "shoppable" procedures. Shoppable = you're going to make a conscious decision to find the best possible price. Most common were major, non-emergency surgeries like hip or knee replacements or small stuff like imaging. Once you're in the actual care "flow", its highly unlikely to tell the doctor "how much will that MRI cost me? Let me check this app to drive across town and save $20."

3 - For all the talk about consumer demand for cost transparency, Cost is low on the list when it comes to determining if/where to get care. Quality, Availability (accepting new patients, how soon can they see me), Word of Mouth (friend/family recommended), matter more. Largely because....

4 - After a certain point (i.e. once I've hit my deductible) consumers don't care about cost as long as they're in-network.

(former PM of cost transparency application)

Having been through several hundred thousand dollars of chargemaster charges with one of the hospitals on this list I can confidently say this info is not consumer-friendly at all.

First of all, did anyone look at the damn PDFs? Do you have any idea what a "HCHG SP EVAL MTN FLUOR SWAL 75" is or a "HCHG XR RIBS BILAT W PA CXR"? Does this really equip the typical healthcare consumer with the ability to "shop 'n save"? No. They are going to ask their health insurance provider if the hospital is in network, and the health insurance bureaucracy has the experts who pour through and negotiate all this crap.

Second, even if you had about a year of your life to educate yourself about the hundreds of myriad codes like this that are involved in various procedures and take it upon yourself to compare hospitals, this would be like comparing hotels based on their rack rate. You might get a sense for things but nobody pays that. Everything is negotiated down. Even for the uninsured who usually either get a 50%+ discount or pay whatever they can pay and kill their credit or go bankrupt. Which is not to imply in any way this is affordable for anyone, just that chargemasters aren't a super useful way to compare pricing even if you could figure it out.

Third, it's a free market fantasy that more "consumer" info will fix this system. Many patients are not in a position to comparison shop anyway. It is the epitome of a market failure.

If you want to fix this system we need Medicare For All.