Price transparency will not lower costs

Hospital price transparency will not lower healthcare costs. Only a small number of patients pay charges. If you have private insurance, Medicare, Medicaid or other covered programs, you are subject to a co-pay for the covered service. That co-pay amount is not related to the hospital charges. The co-pay amount is related to your insurance coverage. Hospitals have contracts with insurance companies and that includes Medicare, Medicaid and others. The hospital must write off the difference to what is considered acceptable charge by the insurance company and what they will pay based on contract and the required co-pay based on the patient's insurance coverage. The hospital may be required to publish charges but in effect it has nothing to do with what an insured patient or company is required to pay. In effect a hospital must be sure that its basic charge for a procedure is higher than what they will get paid by insurance contract or else the insurance company will only pay the published charge.

Healthvcare services do not work like buying groceries, cars or other supplies or services. We can shop for our daily needs because we pay directly for it. If you have health insurance, you can shop for cost but you must be aware of your physicians and the hospitals covered by your plan. This is the American health system and I see no way that costs will be contained in the future without major changes in our service. Our health care system continues to grow with consolidations but it has not contained cost. When will we reach the point where health care costs are no longer affordable? For an individual who now can no longer afford insurance, they have already reached that point.