Starting the beginning of this year, every hospital in the country will be required to list their prices online.
This is part of a new federal rule called the inpatient prospective payment system. It will also require hospitals to make medical records more easily accessible to patients. The goal of this rule is to increase transparency.
While this is new to the federal government, Ohio has been doing this for several years. Local hospitals say if they have any questions about the prices, patients should contact the hospital or their insurance company.
"Many times it's very confusing to see the prices of hospital charges so our goal is to have the patient contact the local hospital representatives in the business office for us to be able to tell them what we need in order to estimate what they're out of pocket expenses would be," explained Brad Sinclair, chief financial officer at Lima Memorial Hospital.
Mercy Health released a statement saying "We recognize that health care is complex and we work closely with patients and their families to provide information about the cost of their care, what their insurance covers and ultimately what their out-of-pocket expense may be."
And hospitals say their main goal is to help empower their patients and their experience.
