President Trump Signs Executive Order To Make Health Care Costs More Transparent: 'We're Giving Power Back To Patients'
WASHINGTON (CBSDFW.COM) - President Donald Trump signed an executive order Monday requiring hospitals and insurance companies to tell patients exactly how much their medical care would cost before they get it.
This isn't the administration's first attempt at price transparency for medical procedures.
Earlier this year, a CBS 11 I-Team investigation showed how the administration's attempts at greater price transparency fell short.
With this new executive order, the president says he is giving the power back to the patients.
"We're taking power away from bureaucrats, we're taking it away from insurance companies and away from special interests, we are giving that power back to patients," President Trump said in the signing ceremony at the White House.
While the industry welcomes price transparency some are skeptical about how it will all work.
The president of the DFW Hospital Council, Stephen Love, told the CBS 11 I-Team, the order remains unclear on what information patients will eventually get.
"We don't know what it's going to look like but basically the parameters that he framed it with is that he wanted the people to know what the costs of their healthcare would be so they could make informed decisions," Love said.
Many hospitals and insurance companies are not on board with the president's plan to make public the prices they negotiate with insurance companies.
In the past these negotiations have been kept secret.