Hospitals would have to disclose the discounted prices they negotiate with insurance companies under a Trump administration rule that could upend the $1 trillion hospital industry by revealing rates long guarded as trade secrets.
Hospitals that fail to share the discounted prices in an online form could be fined up to $300 a day, according to the proposal. The price-disclosure requirements would cover all the more than 6,000 hospitals that accept Medicare as well as some others.
Comments on the proposal would be due in September and, if completed, the rule would take effect in January.
Hospitals would have to disclose the rates for services and treatment that they have negotiated with individual insurance companies such as CVS Health Corp.’s CVS, +1.30% Aetna Inc., Cigna Corp. CI, +2.95% and Anthem Inc. ANTM, -0.55% under the proposal released Monday. The Trump administration is also working on initiatives that could compel insurers to disclose their rates, part of a push to publicize costs that is likely to spur lawsuits and sharp resistance from the industry.
An expanded version of this report appears on WSJ.com.
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