The order will allow over 200 million Americans to access a list with live price information and cost-sharing data, allowing them to know the price of a drug or procedure before purchasing it, according to a Health and Human Services press release.
Blase also said that the order would prevent “surprise billing,” something which he said was even more important during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
“This measure will cut through waste and eliminate middlemen, spur innovation, foster competition between healthcare providers and plans, and put downward pressure on the cost of healthcare and coverage, resulting in tremendous savings and innovation,” he added.
Fisher and Blase’s reactions, however, were not unanimous. Dr. Robert Graboyes, a senior researcher at the Mercatus Center an opponent of health care price transparency, told the Daily Caller News Foundation that “mandatory transparency may counterintuitively reduce competition and push healthcare prices upward instead of downward.”
In markets like health care, where there are relatively few providers and high barriers to entry, mutual knowledge of each others prices can lead to what Graboyes called “tacit collusion.” Insurers could incrementally raise their prices with out explicitly engaging in conspiratorial behavior, “resembling that of a cartel” as a result, Graboyes said.
He also added that the rule would likely be taken advantage of by large insurance companies eager to hide their prices.
“Unfortunately, the likely outcome is that established insiders will effectively write the rules in ways that pose obstacles to potential competitors,” he told the DCNF.
