Measures To Increase Transparency In Healthcare Pricing Stall In The House.

CQ Today (5/7, Ethridge, subscription required) reports, "Efforts to rein in health care costs by promoting price transparency appeared to go nowhere in a House subcommittee hearing Thursday, despite bipartisan agreement that consumers need more information to make better health care decisions." Notably, "all three measures would require certain health care providers to disclose information on the cost of services, enabling consumers to make better-informed decisions. Sponsors say that without price transparency, patients are in the dark when they choose which health services to get and where to get them." CQ points out that previously, insurers objected to providing pricing information on the Internet, but on Thursday, an AHIP spokesman said, "Providing greater transparency on the prices charged for medical services will help to shine a spotlight on what is one of the main drivers of rising health care costs."

CQ HealthBeat (5/7, Reichard, subscription required) also reports, "Democrats and Republicans may agree that consumers need more information to compare the prices of health care services, but the spirit of bipartisanship was not in full bloom at a House subcommittee hearing Thursday that considered several bills on the subject." CQ adds, "Greater consumer awareness of the price of health care services could help Americans get better deals and make the health care system more efficient, [Frank] Pallone [D-NJ] said, but he added that price disclosure must be handled in the right way." Meanwhile, GOP lawmakers, "their anger unabated about passage of the health care overhaul law, spent a fair chunk of their time slamming that measure."

Modern Healthcare (5/7, DoBias, subscription required) notes that Pallone "said he would not commit to advancing legislation that requires providers, payers and vendors to publicly disclose the cost of their services." Modern Healthcare points out that one of the bills "requires hospitals, doctors, nurses, pharmacies and a range of manufacturers and vendors to openly disclose prices."