SAN ANTONIO – For decades, the prices of procedures at most hospitals have been nearly impossible to find.
Now, hospitals in the U.S., including San Antonio, are posting the prices of their medical procedures online as a new federal rule and state law takes effect.
The mandates require hospitals to make public the costs of procedures, including those charged to insurance companies through negotiated rates and cash prices charged to uninsured patients.
A federal rule aimed at increasing transparency and helping people save money by comparing rates went into effect in January and was created by the Trump administration in 2019, according to a Kaiser Health News article.
The Texas Legislature followed that federal rule by passing a similar state law this year in Senate Bill 1137. Recently signed by Gov. Greg Abbott, the Texas Pricing Transparency Act takes effect Sept. 1.
Still, the price estimator tools are not front and center on most hospitals’ websites. KSAT has posted links to the local hospitals below.
If you are looking for prices from other hospitals, you can try using a search engine like Google and terms including the name of the hospital and “hospital prices” or “price estimator tools.”
According to an NPR article by Julie Appleby, it’s still an unanswered question whether the price transparency mandates will lead to lower prices for patients and it can be confusing for some.
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