New Hampshire House Representative Marilinda Garcia recently submitted a bill that would require ambulatory surgery centers, hospitals and physician offices to provide uninsured patients with pricing for their 25 most common procedures, according to a Concord Monitor report.
New Hampshire currently has a measure of price transparency with NHHealthCost.org, a website that allows patients to calculate an estimate of procedure costs. Some claim that the proposed legislation seeks to fill a gap that is already covered by NHHealthCost.org, while others say the website creates estimates using outdated or incomplete information.
Nick Vailas, chief executive officer of Bedford (N.H.) Ambulatory Surgical Center, says the site needs more raw data and it currently is not very user-friendly. He believes that the private market would be able to meet the demands of price transparency if enough information was publicly available.
The House subcommittee is scheduled to meet on Sept. 10 to create a new draft of the bill.
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