Calif. earns F in health care pricing transparency
By Lisa Aliferis, KQED-TV
California — and 44 other states — received failing grades in an analysis on transparency of health care prices. The report comes from Berkeley-based Catalyst for Payment Reform, and it shows that consumers remain pretty much in the dark if they want to figure out, in advance, what a treatment or procedure will cost.
“Very few states have done anything meaningful to help consumers understand what their health care costs were going to be,” said Suzanne Delbanco, executive director of the organization.
While California has taken “important symbolic steps” by passing price transparency laws, Delbanco said, “what hasn’t happened is turning that information into something that’s useful to consumers.”