Jun 25, 2019
President Trump signed an executive order directing federal agencies to increase healthcare price and quality transparency. The order directs the Departments of Labor, Treasury, and Health and Human Services to issue guidance and propose regulations on disclosing negotiated rates, cost-of-care, and federal healthcare data. They are also directed to expand the availability of Health Savings Accounts (HSAs).
The order does not immediately trigger new federal policies. NAHU says that they will work with these agencies to influence the regulations and ensure that any rules are in the best interest of consumers. NAHU will cover the executive order in their podcast series.
The order instructs federal agencies to issue guidance on regulations that would do the following:
- Require hospitals to disclose what people actually pay for services in an easy-to-read format
- Require insurance companies to give patients information about the cost of care before they receive services including out-of-pocket costs.
- Develop a roadmap for consolidating quality measures across all federal healthcare programs
- Dramatically expand access to de-identified healthcare claims data to help researchers improve the healthcare system
- Allow HSAs to cover direct primary care arrangements and healthcare sharing ministries, allow HSAs to include more preventive services and products that can be covered in the deductible period, and issue guidance on funds that can be carried over at the remainder of the year for FSAs
