Ohio House works on health care cost transparency

The Ohio House of Representatives is taking another swing at making health care costs more transparent. As part of a workers’ compensation budget in 2015, legislators passed a law requiring health care providers to give patients up-front costs of medical care. Hospitals and doctors sued, successfully blocking the law from taking effect.

Rep. Larry Householder said he and his staff spent more than nine hours on May 7 meeting with doctors, hospitals and other health care providers before introducing the latest language.

Rep. Jim Butler, who also sponsored the 2015 law, said that instead of requiring a cost estimate when a patient arrives to get a procedure, the latest version requires an estimate within 24 hours of making an appointment. He said it’s also less of an administrative burden on providers because it requires the insurance company to provide the estimate to their client.