CHARLOTTE — A new ruling went into effect Friday, which states that hospitals must be more transparent when it comes to pricing.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said that all hospitals must have a price estimator tool for patients.
[Hospitals to post charges online for standard services]
The tool is intended to help people figure out their out-of-pocket costs.
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For example, Novant Health set up a cost estimate website.
“(It’s) an estimate of the patient’s out-of-pocket financial responsibility for the hospital service that would be inclusive of supplies, implants, hospital stay that is required, that would be all included in that hospital bill,” said Melanie O’Connell, Novant Health.
The estimate only includes the hospital portion of a bill and not others, such as bills from a doctor or anesthesiologist.
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