CHA News

CHA Comments on Health Plan Price Transparency Proposed Rule

For CEOs, CFOs, chief legal counsel, government relations executives, finance staff

This post has been archived and contains information that may be out of date.

CHA has submitted comments on the proposed rule issued by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), along with the departments of Labor and Treasury, that would establish a number of new price transparency requirements for health plans — including a proposal to require the disclosure of negotiated rates. CHA thanks members for their input, which helped inform our comments.

In the letter, CHA raises legal concerns about the proposal to require the disclosure of negotiated rates. CHA does not believe the proposal will promote health care competition or lower health care costs for consumers, and may instead result in less competition and potentially increase health care costs.

CHA encourages CMS to withdraw the proposal to require health insurers and group health plans to make publicly available data files with negotiated rates for all covered services. However, CHA strongly supports the proposal to require health insurers and health plans to make the information required in the internet-based consumer support tools available to providers.

CHA also offers recommendations to improve the usability of the information presented in the tools and reduce confusion for both plan participants and providers.