The House Ways and Means Committee held a hearing on May 16 entitled “Health Care Price Transparency: A Patient’s Right to Know.” Witnesses at the hearing included a former director of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation and hospital CEO, a health economist, a surgical services provider, and a provider of health care price data.
The hearing largely focused on Trump-era price transparency rules, which imposed a number of new requirements on hospitals, including publishing all hospital standard charges in a machine-readable format with a description of the item or service [refer to Washington Highlights, Nov. 14, 2019]. Committee members questioned the witnesses about compliance with the rules and whether patients were utilizing the reported information. The committee also discussed health savings accounts and high deductible health plans, with some members claiming that their widespread deployment drives down the costs of health care and others arguing that their use exacerbates disparities and contributes to increased medical debt.