by Jeff Sovern
So reports the NY Times. Excerpt:
Vanderbilt University Medical Center, responding to a new Trump administration order to begin posting all hospital prices, listed a charge of $42,569 for a cardiology procedure described as “HC PTC CLOS PAT DUCT ART.”
Baptist Health in Miami helpfully told consumers that an “Embolza Protect 5.5” would cost them $9,818 while a “Visceral selective angio rad” runs a mere $5,538.
More evidence that disclosure is usually an unsuccessful consumer protection, but the Trump administration is locked in ideologically to disclosure, as demonstrated by the quote in the article from Seema Verma, the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services: “This is about empowering patients.” Disclosure often provides the illusion of consumer protection without the reality. Could it be that the administration wants to be able to say it is empowering patients, while actually providing them no benefit whatsoever?
