Trump requires all healthcare providers, insurers to publicly disclose costs of services

President Donald Trump has signed an executive order to make healthcare costs more transparent for Americans, directing regulators to force healthcare facilities and insurance companies to publicly disclose the prices of different services.

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," according to a fact sheet from the White House. The regulations to force transparency, the release stated, were "slow walked by the prior administration."

"The departments will 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 release added.

The order stated that the "regulations require hospitals to maintain a consumer-friendly display of pricing information for up to 300 shoppable services and a machine-readable file with negotiated rates for every single service the hospital provides."

Healthcare costs typically remain unknown to consumers until after services have been provided. This is a result of negotiations between doctors, insurance companies, and pharmaceutical companies to determine the price tag on any given healthcare service.

"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 fact sheet stated.

Publicly disclosing prices would provide more competition to drive down the cost of visiting your doctor, going to the hospital for a given reason, or other services, as patients will have the ability to make judgement on costs associated with a given healthcare service, the fact sheet states.

Trump said of the order, "Our goal was to give patients the knowledge they need about the real price of healthcare services. 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."

"And this is about high-quality care. You’re also looking at that. You’re looking at comparisons between talents, which is very important. And then, you’re also looking at cost. And, in some cases, you get the best doctor for the lowest cost. That’s a good thing," he added.