Source: Fierce Healthcare
President Donald Trump signed an executive order Tuesday to reinforce rules, put into place during his first term, that push hospitals and payers to make healthcare prices more transparent for patients.
The order directs the Departments of the Treasury, Labor, and Health and Human Services to rapidly implement and enforce the Trump healthcare price transparency regulations, which were first issued in 2019.
These rules were “slow walked” by the Biden administration, the White House said in a fact sheet explaining the executive order.
The executive order directs the Treasury and Labor departments and HHS to ensure hospitals and insurers “disclose actual prices, not estimates” and take action to make prices comparable across hospitals and insurers, including prescription drug prices.
The departments also are directed to update enforcement policies to ensure hospitals and insurers are in compliance with requirements to make prices transparent.
“When healthcare prices are hidden, large corporate entities like hospitals and insurance companies benefit at the expense of American patients. Price transparency will lower healthcare prices and help patients and employers get the best deal on healthcare,” the White House wrote in the fact sheet.
