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The Trump administration on Friday announced it would begin forcing hospitals to publicly disclose the discounted prices they negotiate with insurance companies, a potentially bold move to help people shop for better deals on a range of medical services, from hip replacements to brain scans. “For decades, hospitals, insurance companies, lobbyists and special interests have hidden prices from consumers, so they could drive up costs for you, and you had no idea what was happening,” President Trump said Friday afternoon in the White House’s Roosevelt Room. “You’d get bills that were unbelievable and you’d have no idea why.” (Abelson, 11/15)

In a new twist, the administration is also proposing to require most health plans that Americans get through their jobs to disclose the rates they negotiate with hospitals and doctors in their insurance networks, as well as the amounts they pay to doctors out-of-network. Taken together, the pair of actions — one a final rule, the other in draft form — is part of President Trump’s 2020 electoral strategy to capi­tal­ize on polls that show health care ranks among Americans’ top domestic concerns. Public opinion surveys consistently show that consumers are looking to government especially to ease the burden of escalating out-of-pocket costs. (Goldstein, 11/15)

"Our goal is to give patients the knowledge they need about the real price of health care services," said Trump. "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." Administration officials heralded both rules as historic and transformative to the health care system. (Simmons-Duffin, 11/15)

Kaiser Health News: White House Unveils Finalized Health Care Price Transparency Rule

The hospital rule is slated to go into effect in January 2021. It is part of an effort by the Trump administration to increase price transparency in hopes of lowering health care costs on everything from hospital services to prescription drugs. But it is controversial and likely to face court challenges.(Appleby, 11/15)

Why it matters: Advocates of requiring hospitals and insurers to disclose negotiated rates say that it'll help patients shop for health care, which could in turn lower prices through enhanced competition. The other side: Hospitals and insurers hate the proposal and say it could lead to higher costs, as providers receiving lower payments from insurers would then demand higher rates once they find out what their competitors are making. (Owens, 11/15)

Hospitals are already gearing up for a legal fight in hopes of striking down the rule. The American Hospital Association, Association of American Medical Colleges, Children's Hospital Association and Federation of American Hospitals said in a joint statement Friday that they will sue the federal government alleging the rule exceeds the CMS' authority. Hospitals have argued that making them disclose negotiated prices will increase healthcare costs by allowing insurers to collude to fix prices, a claim that many economists dispute. (Brady, 11/15)

Insurance-industry groups were also critical. The rules won’t help consumers better understand their out-of-pocket costs and “may have negative, unintended consequences -- including price increases,” Scott Serota, CEO of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, said in a news release. “Transparency should be achieved in a way that encourages -- not undermines -- competitive negotiations to lower patients’ and consumers’ costs and premiums,” Matt Eyles, CEO of America’s Health Insurance Plans, said in a news release. (Tozzi and Stein, 11/15)

The advocacy work of a Newton nonprofit paid off when the Trump administration and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services implemented a new pricing transparency rule for health care services. (11/18)