Hospital Price Transparency: A Necessary First Step

In this episode, Dr. Veltmeyer discusses how hospital price transparency -- another of President Trump's innovative health care reforms -- promises to bring revolutionary change to the pricing structure of American medicine come January 2021. By requiring hospitals to provide their customers with the prices of standard medical procedures in advance, health care consumers will be motivated to shop around for better prices and encourage hospitals -- which are the biggest cost drivers in health care today -- to compete for business by lowering costs. Who ever heard of buying something without knowing the price? Would you buy a house, car, or almost anything else in this manner? Of course not. Then, why should hospitals be allowed to collude with insurance companies to set their prices in secret and you only learn of them when you receive the so-called "Explanation of Benefits" from your insurance company months later?