Medical groups oppose price transparency

Kaiser Health News reported on an ongoing clash in the state of Ohio, which passed a law to make "good-faith" estimates of medical procedures available to patients before they select a provider. This seemingly straightforward law has met resistance from the medical community, including from Ohio Hospital Association, which claims that compliance would delay patient care.

Assuming that the estimates do not have to include patient-specific information (such as deductible already spent), the claim of delayed patient care seems ridiculous -- providers (especially hospitals) have electronic billing systems that could be used (or perhaps adapted) to quickly generate reasonable estimates. Even if generating estimates were unwieldy, why should patients be expected to select a provider without such information? What other industry would push back against having to supply reasonable estimates? Hopefully, common sense will prevail and the courts will uphold patient rights to pricing transparency before selecting a provider.