Trump is preparing a decree that will help Americans save on medical services

US President Donald Trump will sign a decree ordering hospitals to inform patients in advance of current prices for common tests and procedures.

Photo: facebook.com/WhiteHouse

The decree, whose main task is to fulfill the President’s promise to cut medical expenses for Americans, will require the Department of Health and Social Services to develop a rule that hospitals must disclose the cost of medical services so that patients can choose the most economical option.

However, in the decree, according to sources familiar with the document being prepared, it does not say what level of detail the hospitals should provide. These may be private arrangements between hospitals and insurers for specific health insurance plans or summary average prices.

The agency will also need to make a proposal that requires medical service providers and insurers to inform patients of the amount that they will have to pay from their own pockets for a particular service before starting treatment.

“Patient empowerment requires transparency around price and quality,” said Department of Health Commissioner Alex Azar.

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“Every day, this system exploits patients by withholding from them important information needed to make decisions for patients and their families,” he added.

Hospitals, insurers and other health care providers are already preparing to oppose disclosing their contractual rates, which, they say, will do more harm than good.

The insurers trading group has indicated that too much transparency can hinder competition in the medicine market. The hospitals also opposed this type of disclosure, saying that patients are more interested in their personal expenses.

Фото: Depositphotos

Trump has long promised to solve the problem of the high cost of medical care in America, which is one of the most acute problems in the country.

The administration has already taken some initial steps to demand more detailed information about costs from drug manufacturers and healthcare providers, although it was mainly focused on price list prices in the industry, rather than on agreed rates or what consumers are billed for.

Last month, Azar announced that drug manufacturers would have to include the price of drugs in their television ads. Several drug manufacturers have recently filed a lawsuit against this innovation.

Starting this year, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid services require hospitals to place on their websites information about the standard fee for their services in a format that can be imported into a computer system.

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The legislators of both parties to Congress are working together in the hope of raising awareness of prices and backstage tactics that keep US spending high in medicine.

However, experts say that most of Trump's actions have not yet directly addressed the real problem: the high cost of hospital services, doctors and drug manufacturers. Disclosure of list prices or general data does not help the majority of Americans, since their rates are determined by their insurance and coverage level, so this information will tell them little about what they will actually pay, and may even lead some patients to refuse medical treatment. services.

“I'm not sure how aggregate rate information will help patients, many of whom will have different types of coverage or spend their insurance in different places,” said Niall Brennan, executive director of the nonprofit health care organization the Medical Cost Institute.

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