Supreme Court takes up healthcare price transparency

Everyone from President Obama, to GOP presidential hopefuls, to people with high-deductible health insurance have said the more transparency in the pricing of healthcare, the better.

But Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to take up a case that could make it harder to know how much the nation’s largest employers are paying hospitals and doctors for their employee's medical costs.

Eighteen states have created databases that track the prices that public and private insurers pay for medical care. The idea here, said UCLA health law professor Allison Hoffman, is to leverage this data to drive better deals with hospitals and doctors. Continue…

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