Medicare Administrator Verma Wants Price Transparency

On April 30, 2018, Seema Verma said it's time that health care catches up with other industries when it comes to providing consumers greater transparency about prices up front and easier access to their records and health data once they have received care.

"We know that any other place in the economy you can know what things are going cost. Somehow in health care it's a big mystery," said Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) administrator Seema Verma at the World Health Care Congress in Washington, D.C.  She said Medicare is asking hospitals to post their prices on line.

In an interview on CNBC, she went on to say:

• CMS has issued new proposals to promote integration of digital health-care records.
• The comment period for CMS proposals has ended to allow health insurers to sell short-term plans that would not have to comply with Obamacare coverage regulations. More information will be available soon.
• CMS will offer new proposals to combat rising drug prices soon. Medicare’s 2019 budget outline includes a proposal to give Part D plans for seniors more power to negotiate lower prices from manufacturers, and it initiates a pilot program that would allow state Medicaid programs to obtain more competitive prices.

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By Robert J. Blackburn, Managing Principal, Blackburn Group, Inc., contact him at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..