[Podcast] The Straight Dope on Hospital and Payer Transparency Rules

Three transparency rules have come out of CMS in the past months. The first was announced last year, and it was for hospitals to post their chargemasters. This could be considered a baseline step. It’s not really all that useful in practice as many discovered. The second rule stipulates that providers (hospitals) for all services have to post a machine-readable file—all of their negotiated rates for all service categories. They also have to post a shoppable service file and/or some kind of patient estimator tool so patients can estimate the cost of the most shopped services. Finally, the third rule for payers is similar to that of the provider rule except payers have to comply at a higher level.

Join Jeff Leibach as he discusses how these rules, which he calls three steps on a ladder, build on each other. Listen to the podcast here.