CMS releases price lookup tool

Last month, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced their release of a Procedure Price Look Up tool. This tool marks another step towards making more information available to patients.

The tool seems to give an estimate of costs for Medicare patients, since actual prices can vary by location (which is not considered in their estimates). Additionally, the tool only seems available for procedures that are performed in both ambulatory surgical centers and hospital outpatient departments. Nevertheless, this tool can provide a point of reference for patients, and perhaps more importantly, be a small step in helping foster a culture and expectation of price transparency.