Re:Open Source Hospital Price Transparency
by sl-dolt on Wednesday December 07, 2022 @10:41AM
(#33895602)
I'm the author of the article, but I'm not a lawyer.
Regarding your first point:
I'm aware of the copyright on billing codes. I suspect it means "you can't make your own billing codes based off of our system."
I don't think it means you can't republish the codes anywhere. They're republished all the time.
Someone can jump in and correct me.
Secondly:
The CMS law required hospitals to itemize their procedures by billing code _and_ by insurance company. Not that they all do that, but in theory, these negotiated rates should allow you to price shop between hospitals. The "list prices" are effectively meaningless.
Regarding your first point:
I'm aware of the copyright on billing codes. I suspect it means "you can't make your own billing codes based off of our system."
I don't think it means you can't republish the codes anywhere. They're republished all the time.
Someone can jump in and correct me.
Secondly:
The CMS law required hospitals to itemize their procedures by billing code _and_ by insurance company. Not that they all do that, but in theory, these negotiated rates should allow you to price shop between hospitals. The "list prices" are effectively meaningless.