On Friday, President Biden signed a pro-competition executive order that includes a provision calling on the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to support the hospital price transparency rule that took effect at the beginning of the year. This order is a major win for American consumers because it gives bipartisan presidential endorsement to the game-changing rule requiring hospitals to post their real prices, including their discounted cash and secret negotiated rates.

Our health care system keeps making us pay more for less, often unfairly. But if you follow some basic steps you can make sure you get a fair deal. Here are seven patient empowerment steps we should all take when we undergo health care.

Mason Kochel, a sophomore at Colorado Mesa University in Grand Junction, has an op-ed in Colorado Politics telling his story of hospital price gouging and explaining from firsthand experience how real prices can reduce crushing healthcare costs. He discusses how he used actual prices to successfully fight an $18,000 hospital bill, and he argues that greater compliance with the hospital price transparency rule that took effect at the beginning of the year can empower more patients to do the same.

Dr. Keith Smith, the co-founder of the Surgery Center of Oklahoma, has an op-ed in The Oklahoman explaining how healthcare price transparency can reduce obscene medical prices. The Surgery Center of Oklahoma posts easily accessible, real prices offering patients financial certainty, the opportunity to shop for their care, and deep discounts compared to major hospital systems.

A new JAMA study finds that only about 20 percent of American hospitals are complying with the hospital price transparency rule that took effect earlier this year. The JAMA findings align with research from PatientRightsAdvocate.org and other recent studies published by Health Affairs and the Kaiser Family Foundation showing widespread hospital noncompliance.

North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein recently sent a letter to hospital administrators in the state calling on them to follow federal regulations and reveal their real prices so that patients and healthcare consumers can shop for the best care at the best prices. He demands state hospitals provide information showing how they’re complying with the hospital price transparency rule that took effect at the beginning of the year.

PatientRightsAdvocate.org sent the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) a letter and one-pager of recommendations on how it can finally deliver actual healthcare prices to consumers by taking actionable steps in its forthcoming CY 2022 OPPS Rule currently being drafted. PRA’s letter highlights the widespread noncompliance with the hospital price transparency rule and provides the following recommendations to deliver meaningful healthcare price transparency to lower the costs of care and coverage.

PatientRightsAdvocate.org has identified St. Clair Hospital in Pittsburgh as one of the nation’s best hospitals at complying with the price transparency rule that took effect at the beginning of the year. Cynthia A. Fisher, PRA founder and chair, has an op-ed in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review highlighting St. Clair as an exception to American hospitals’ widespread noncompliance with the rule.

The NBC news affiliates in Cleveland and Houston recently ran powerful stories and segments featuring patients enjoying substantial healthcare savings through price transparency as well as the perspective of PRA.

On January 1, 2021, a CMS rule requiring hospitals to post their real prices, including their discounted cash and secret negotiated rates, took effect. PatientRightsAdvocate.org surveyed a sampling of American hospitals in the spring of 2021 to determine the level of compliance with the rule. We found that just 86 of 431 hospitals surveyed (20%) are complying with it.

Healthcare expert Brian Blase, Special Assistant to the President at White House National Economic Council from 20'17 to 2019, takes on critics of healthcare price transparency in a new op-ed in The Hill. He explains how price transparency criticisms, including that patients are shielded from prices and that price disclosures lead to tacit collusion, miss the mark.

Cynthia Rivera, a patient from upstate New York, tells her story in the Syracuse Post-Standard of saving thousands of dollars by shopping for healthcare. She highlights how empowered patients don’t need to “wait on Washington” to address the healthcare cost crisis.

A bipartisan group of legislators from the U.S. House of Representatives wrote a letter to HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra last week demanding increased enforcement of the hospital price transparency rule that took effect at the beginning of the year. Numerous recent studies have shown widespread non-compliance with the rule.

Cynthia A. Fisher, CEO and Chair of PatientRIghtsAdvocate.org, has an op-ed in the Washington Examiner highlighting spring financial disclosures by major American health insurers showing sky-high profits and executive compensation. Cynthia explains how this profiteering is not only a function of fewer claims paid out in a pandemic year but also the result of opaque pricing practices that prevent consumers from shopping.

Scott Ross is a seasoned private investigator in Los Angeles, working on some of the biggest criminal cases in the state over the last couple of decades. But even he can’t uncover opaque hospital prices.

Hospital compliance with the new price transparency rule that took effect at the beginning of the year has been poor. Price lists are often confusing, consist of mere estimates, and don't represent all-in prices. According to research published in Health Affairs, two-thirds of large hospitals are non-compliant.

Just in time for Halloween, the new Transparency in Coverage Final Rule released Thursday is a sweet treat for consumers, as it means insurance companies must stop the tricks and end the masquerade of keeping their scary and mysterious prices in the dark.

Polling conducted by the Marist Poll from January 14-17, 2021 shows that Americans overwhelmingly support their right to see prices in healthcare by requiring hospitals and insurance companies to disclose their real prices.