New effort to standardize pricing information
August 21, 2023
During the previous White House administration, hospitals were required to post prices of common procedures online in a machine-readable format. However, people who tried to consume the data found them difficult to ingest. KFF Health News has reported that the current White House administration seeks to "further standardize the required data, increase its usefulness for consumers, and boost enforcement."
Regulation for insurers to post pricing information online appears to be more standardized and therefore easier to ingest, so this effort might lead to more organizations being able to make use of this data. Details remain to be seen. Interestingly, the federal government "sent more than 900 warning letters to hospitals about their posted data, with most resolving those concerns," suggesting that hospitals might be responsive when deficiencies in this area are pointed out.