Trump signs executive order on healthcare price transparency, vowing it will 'blow everything away'
President Trump has signed an executive order meant to help patients shop for medical care, revving up for a reelection campaign in which he plans to cast himself as a champion of healthcare despite presiding over an increase in uninsurance and trying and failing to undo Obamacare. The executive order signed Monday will lead to doctors, hospitals, clinics, and other medical providers making their prices publicly available so that patients can see how much they can expect to pay before they receive care. "This is a very big thing that is happening right now and it’s pretty much going to blow everything away,” Trump said.
Trump's move comes as polling from the Kaiser Family Foundation consistently shows that voters want to spend less of their own money on healthcare. Democrats vying to challenge Trump in 2020 are calling for measures to extend government healthcare. Under the current system, patients are largely in the dark about how much medical care costs, because their insurance companies do the negotiating with doctors and hospitals in private on their behalf. Despite the negotiation, patients still often get stuck with large medical bills. Part of the reason for the surprise bills is that medical prices and healthcare spending have continued to increase every year, and that healthcare providers and insurers increasingly pass on costs to patients. "This lack of price transparency has enriched industry giants greatly, costing Americans hundreds of billions of dollars a year," Trump said.
The rules Trump is pushing forward would bring healthcare more in line with other industries, in which consumers can see what different providers charge and can shop around for what they want. Doctors and hospitals charge different amounts for the same procedures and tests depending on which insurer is paying and what part of the country they're located in. Under the executive order, the Department of the Treasury will expand which services patients can pay for using health savings accounts, which are often touted by conservatives as a way for patients to become more price sensitive by having "skin in the game." "This is truly big action," Trump said. "People have no idea how big it is. Some people say bigger than healthcare itself. This is something that's going to be very important."
Backers of the overall plan hope that providing people with more information will give consumers better tools to shop around when they’re preparing for a medical checkup, undergoing routine procedures, or purchasing drugs or medical supplies. Patients who try to shop now often wind up at a dead end, and become frustrated that they have to put so much time into getting answers about what medical treatment will cost them. The provisions in the executive order don't take effect right away, but set off a rulemaking process at the Department of Health and Human Services that will allow outside groups to weigh in as officials determine how and what information healthcare providers will be required to display.
It's not clear that posting prices will help to drive them down, but the Trump administration says it wants patients to have all the tools they need to make decisions about their care. Providing more data also opens up the opportunity for technology companies, running apps or websites, to gather the data in a way that will help consumers easily compare it. As part of the executive order, the administration will come up with ways to present data that could lead to improvements in care, and will lay out plans for which quality measures to focus on. HHS Secretary Alex Azar presented the executive order as a game-changer for healthcare in a phone call with reporters earlier in the day.
"Patient empowerment requires transparency around price and quality," he said. "Every day, American patients are being taken advantage of by a system that hides critical information from them that they need to make decisions for them and their families." The proposal was met with backlash by the healthcare industry. Critics said that it could cause prices to increase if businesses know that competitors are getting higher payments for their services. "Publicly disclosing competitively negotiated, proprietary rates will reduce competition and push prices higher — not lower — for consumers, patients, and taxpayers," said Matt Eyles, president and CEO of America’s Health Insurance Plans.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/healthcare/trump-signs-executive-order-on-healthcare-price-transparency-vowing-it-will-blow-everything-away