The Evolution and Impact of Hospital Price Transparency in North Carolina

BACKGROUND Health care costs are on the rise and causing financial burden for many patients. Price transparency has been proposed as a tool to control health care costs. New federal legislation requires all hospitals to publish their chargemasters, or price lists, on their websites as of January 1, 2019.METHOD All general acute care hospitals in North Carolina were contacted in 2017 to request price information. After mandatory chargemaster publication was in effect in 2019, all hospitals previously contacted had their websites evaluated for chargemaster availability. Price information collected in 2019 was compared to information collected in 2017.RESULTS Zero percent of hospitals provided access to chargemasters in 2017, and 72% provided access in 2019. Average price per queried item decreased from 2017 to 2019. Price variability also decreased. However, there was no statistical significance when comparing price means.LIMITATIONS In 2017, price data was limited due to low hospital participation when queried for prices. In 2019, this study's definition of "access to chargemaster" inadvertently excluded some North Carolina hospitals from qualifying as providing price access.CONCLUSION After mandated chargemaster publication, consumer access to hospital price lists greatly increased in North Carolina. Price data, although limited, reveals decreased mean prices and decreased price variability for queried procedures after chargemaster publication was required.