A new report (pdf) by the Government Accountability Office calls on HHS to "determine the feasibility of making estimates of complete costs of healthcare services available to consumers, and, as appropriate, identify next steps."
The report was completed at the request of Congress in response to the growing consumer share of healthcare costs. It found several healthcare and legal factors — including the difficulty of predicting healthcare services in advance, billing from multiple providers, the variety of insurance benefit structures and legal restrictions on sharing contracted rates — make it difficult for consumers to obtain price information for the healthcare services.
The report examined several federal and state healthcare price transparency initiatives, and determined more efforts are needed to expand healthcare pricing information.
The report was completed at the request of Congress in response to the growing consumer share of healthcare costs. It found several healthcare and legal factors — including the difficulty of predicting healthcare services in advance, billing from multiple providers, the variety of insurance benefit structures and legal restrictions on sharing contracted rates — make it difficult for consumers to obtain price information for the healthcare services.
The report examined several federal and state healthcare price transparency initiatives, and determined more efforts are needed to expand healthcare pricing information.