Today’s guest blogger applauds Medicare’s release of hospital fees but maintains the health care industry still has a long way to go to reach full price transparency. Let me know if you agree by sharing your thoughts in the comments. —Andrea Davis, Managing Editor
The variation in hospital charges uncovered in the data released by Medicare earlier this month is significant in its insignificance. As anyone who has worked in health care knows, pricing in the health care market is opaque and unmanageable. Hospital prices in particular, serving primarily as a tool for negotiations with insurers, have long been known to vary widely. Steven Brill described the nature of the hospital chargemaster in great detail in his Time magazine article a few months ago, including the fact that the only people that are asked to pay list price are the uninsured.
