A new federal ruling aims to make medical expenses more transparent.
Hospitals are now required to post their prices online for patients to review before an appointment or procedure.
The ruling went into effect New Year’s Day. However, some argue that the exact dollar amount may be misleading to patients.
“People would know what they [are] getting themselves into before they actually take themselves to the ER. I mean. you never know the price you’ll get even if you just go for a stomach ache because you don’t know the problem,” said Al Willis, who supports the ruling.
Seton Medical Center issued a statement about posting prices online:
“While we support greater transparency around hospital pricing, billing for medical services is a complex issue and the information hospitals are required to post provides only a snapshot of a much larger picture. We urge patients to use the information as a starting point for determining their financial responsibility. It’s important to know the prices listed represent the hospital’s gross charges for a service and do not include discounts negotiated by insurance companies or those provided to qualifying self-pay patients, therefore, in most cases, the patient’s financial responsibility for these services is much lower than the posted price.”
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