More transparency in healthcare pricing – and fewer surprises from the billing department.
Those are the key concepts behind a new Senate bill called the Patients Deserve Price Tags Act. It would require hospitals to be more up-front about what they'll charge you for medical procedures, and to send an itemized breakdown of the costs after a patient receives care.
Colorado Democratic Sen. John Hickenlooper introduced the bill with a Republican co-sponsor, Sen. Roger Marshall of Kansas. Since then, it's moved forward from Senate committee hearings with bipartisan support.
As the bill waits to be heard on the U.S. Senate floor, we talked with Sen. Hickenlooper about why he thinks transparent pricing is a key first step toward reforming American healthcare.
