Matt Eyles, president and CEO of America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), issued this statement following the submission of AHIP’s comments to the “Transparency in Coverage” proposed rule (Transparency Rule):
“Every American should have the personalized health care information they need, when they need it to make better, more informed decisions before they seek and receive care. Health insurance providers are committed to delivering clear, accurate, and personally relevant information about cost and quality to every patient and consumer. Transparency tools should enable hardworking Americans to make health care decisions that are right for them, improve their health care experiences, and make care more affordable — and therefore more accessible. An overwhelming majority of health insurance providers offer tools that deliver on these commitments today.
“We fully support the goal of empowering Americans with easily accessible cost and quality information to make more informed decisions. AHIP strongly urges the Departments to adopt workable solutions that ensure health care information is personalized, easy to understand, accurate, and actionable, focusing on health care treatments and services for which consumers can actually shop.
“In several ways, this proposed rule will ultimately disappoint consumers by failing to deliver what they need and want. By disclosing competitively negotiated rates for every single health care item and service, it would undermine true competition, push prices higher, reduce affordability, and complicate rather than simplify consumers’ health care experience. Requiring such public disclosure exceeds the Departments’ statutory authority. Moreover, it drives consumers to seek information that today is protected by health insurance providers instead from third-party app developers that are not bound by the same patient privacy laws.
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“Let’s work together to empower patients and consumers to make better health care decisions without undermining affordability.”
Source: AHIP
