Trump Signs Executive Order on Healthcare Costs Transparency
On Tuesday, February 25, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to advance price transparency on healthcare costs by directing federal agencies to implement a 2019 order signed during his first term.
The order directs the Departments of the Treasury (USDT), Labor (DOL), and Health and Human Services (HHS) to create a framework to enforce the 2019 executive order forcing health insurers and hospitals to disclose healthcare cost information.
Although healthcare access advocates welcomed the original directive, hospitals have been slow to adopt it, The Hill’s Joseph Choi reported on Wednesday.
“Healthcare prices have historically been shrouded in secrecy, negotiated in private between doctors, hospitals, drug companies, and the insurance companies that pay their bills,” Margot Sanger-Katz wrote for The New York Times. “The parties in those negotiations have fought hard to keep those numbers out of public view, saying that confidentiality is key to their bargaining process.”
“Our goal was to give patients the knowledge they need about the real price of healthcare services. They’ll be able to check them, compare them, go to different locations, so they can shop for the highest-quality care at the lowest cost,” the President said in a statement.
