This is a great beginning. Finally.... Good on Trump for this one. I don't think this solves it all, but this is a HUGE step in the right direction. Health-care stocks rise as Trump talks new price disclosure rules for hospitals and insurers Now we need to do a couple of other things... 1. gradually move us out of a employer-sponsored system to a buy-your-own 2. enforce rules that say you can't charge Bill one price, and Tom another price without medically significant reasoning (smoking, weight, age, etc) The mortgage industry has a good model for this. They have cost bands and once a price is quoted for certain aspects of real estate transactions they have to stay within a 10% threshold of that initial quote and anything outside of that band, the lender typically eats as a cost of doing business. Medical procedures should be done the same way. With all the data we have now, medical providers can certainly figure out an "average" cost for a procedure and give relatively accurate quotes up front. They should then be held accountable for that quote.
I think most in the medical industry adhere to the ‘hold accountable’ aspect but the problem is varying pricing by geography, institution, and even practitioner. That needs to be overseen but one must recognize that equipment etc do come into play.
I get that. in the mortgage industry, title companies are allowed to charge what they want for certain fees, as are appraisers, etc. But once the quote is in, they are bound by that quote. They can't come back and say "there were other factors" and then change the quote by more than 10%. The medical community has seen enough hip replacements to know with a high degree of certainly what a typical hip replacement will cost. They can even build in a little margin for error if they so choose, but again...once quoted, you are bound by that quote. If that quote is made to be public, then I as the consumer, have the opportunity to look around and compare.
