Exactly How Can Consumers Read This?

Price shopping is a common element of the American consumer market—travel sites for hotels and flights, like Expedia; car sales websites, like cars.com; and general comparison shopping engines, like Google Shopping are all designed to help consumers see their options and compare prices. But in health care, consumer price shopping hasn't been possible. Recently, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Service (CMS) passed new regulations requiring hospitals to post their chargemaster fee data for consumers. A hospital chargemaster is a comprehensive listing of items billable to a hospital consumer or a consumer's health insurer. Traditionally, the . . .