This is the first in a two-part series about price transparency. In this episode, I will discuss price transparency as it relates to hospitals and other providers. In Part II, I will discuss the drug industry. In both podcasts, I will talk about efforts underway by the government to provide better information to consumers. The hope is that better access to pricing will increase competition and reduce prices. While I support this free market idea, it has its limitations. In each show, I will provide additional initiatives that should be pursued to not only increase access to better pricing but also to push prices down to realistic levels.
Key Citations

* Requirement to post chargemaster pricing: Modern Healthcare
* Proposal to post hospital and insurer negotiated rates: The Wall Street Journal

Transcript
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Welcome to The Powers Report Podcast. I am your host, Janis Powers. The show brings you candid, unique and data-driven perspectives on the health care industry. I believe that any solution that is going to positively impact the American health care system has to satisfy two major criteria: financial viability and behavioral incentive alignment. In other words, access to high quality care can only be achieved if we can afford it, and if we behave in ways that optimize our health. Please subscribe to our show on iTunes or on your preferred podcasting platform and connect with us on social media. Again, this is Janis Powers, and welcome to The Powers Report Podcast.
Americans have become increasingly frustrated with the health care system, and pricing is a big part of the problem. We’re upset about drug pricing and we’re upset about those pesky nonsensical hospital bills that no one understands. Over a half a million people who file for bankruptcy each year do so because of medical bills. They’re un or under-insured and probably are sitting on a pile of statements that make absolutely no sense to them. It’s outrageous.
The price transparency movement is taking hold as a means to address this problem. Legislators, patient advocates, pundits and even I have been pushing for more price transparency. In this show I am going to talk about the different ways to achieve it because I don’t think the initiatives being undertaken right now are going to get us where we need to be.
This show is the first in a two-part series about price transparency. In this episode, I will focus on price transparency as it relates to hospitals and other providers. In Part II, I will address drug pricing. I think drug pricing gets more media play, but the dollars associated with it are about a third of what is spent by hospitals. From an order of magnitude perspective, dealing with price transparency in the provider system can positively impact more patients and more dollars.
Price transparency has become an increasingly important issue because health care costs have been going up and health insurance is covering a lot less. Some Americans (9% of the population in 2017) don’t even have health insurance. For those who do have it, about half of those covered by their employer have a high deductible health plan. That means that they have to pay, typically, several thousand dollars out of pocket before their insurance will cover their costs. More and more patients are getting slapped with charges that they didn’t expect, that they don’t understand and that they cannot pay. Hence the bankruptcy problem.
The prevailing approach to this – and one embraced by the Trump administration...