CMS finalizes hospital pricing transparency requirements

Kaiser Health News reported on CMS's finalization of its Hospital Price Transparency Requirements. Hospitals will need to publish a list of services, their prices, and a range of negotiated discounts. CMS will specify 70 services that hospitals will need to publish data for, and hospitals themselves can select another 230.

An earlier version of this policy required hospitals to not only publish insurance discounts, but also how much each discount would be for each insurance company (and perhaps plan). That would have been more useful to consumers so that they can more accurately assess how much they would likely be liable for given their specific plan. Nevertheless, this policy is still a step in towards pricing transparency.

Kaiser Health News also noted the proposal to require insurers to offer financial calculators to their members, which would be another welcome change.