PatientRightsAdvocate.org Founder and Chairman Cynthia A. Fisher Statement on Trump Administration’s Final Healthcare Price Transparency Rules

Fisher: Today is a momentous day for the patient consumer

November 15, 2019—Today’s administrative actions are bold and deliver on the commitment that the President and his Administration made to the American people: to put the patient in the driver’s seat by empowering them and their employers with real prices for healthcare services.

The future is now. Innovative employers contracting with only price transparent providers are leading the American Revolution in healthcare. They are already saving 30-50 percent for their employees by choosing cash price transparent providers, offering incentives to their employees and removing the middle players. These trailblazing businesses are increasing employees’ wages by sharing the savings.

When armed with the knowledge and information about the negotiated rates and cash prices that providers, insurers, and third-party administrators currently keep shrouded in secrecy, employers and patients can shop for price and quality. This will drive down prices of care and coverage. Real price transparency and open competition will allow patient choice creating a functional healthcare marketplace —just like we see in other economic sectors like retail and travel.

Today is a momentous day for the patient consumer. Patients will no longer put off going to the doctor for fear of unknown financial ruin. The American public will now be able to control and reduce these current runaway costs. We applaud this Administration for taking such a meaningful step towards delivering system-wide price transparency and a free market in healthcare. From here, the dominoes will fall for better quality, lower prices, and broader access.

The first step is transparency. Once we can see prices we can be empowered to shop and more importantly, this measure can lead to fair and equitable pricing in healthcare. In today’s opaque system, each of us pays a different price for the same service from the same provider, sometimes varying 11 times more than the next. Knowing the real cash prices alone will enable a marketplace just like the grocery store where all customers are charged the same price and not unfairly gouged based on the size of the company they work for, where they live or who they are.

Watch the video that was shared with the administration summarizing how employers are realizing 30-50% savings through price transparency.

In a recent op-ed for U.S. News & World Report, Fisher argues “Real price transparency, which can be achieved through existing laws, is the easiest and least controversial fix to the country's health care cost crisis.”

Ms. Fisher has been an ardent supporter and advocate of the administration’s effort on price transparency. She is a life sciences entrepreneur, Founder and Chairman of PatientRightsAdvocate.org, and Founder and Former CEO of ViaCord. She is available for interviews on the topic. Please contact press@patientrightsadvocate.org to schedule something.