Rhode Island's insurance commissioner instructed health insurers to stop enforcing confidentiality clauses with providers, meaning healthcare prices in the state will become available in the coming months, according to a Providence Journal report.
In a bulletin, Health Insurance Commissioner Christopher F. Koller said the nondisclosure provisions between health insurers and providers "do not appear to have any real or ascertainable value," according to the report.
Starting June 1, insurers will be required to give healthcare providers any information pertaining to service prices that providers request. By April 2014, each insurer is then required to submit a plan to disclosing price information to the public.
Mr. Koller has reserved the possibility that not all information will be shared, however. "We're just saying, 'Tell us what your plan is, what you're going to disclose to who.' We didn't say everybody gets access to everything," he said in the report.
None of the three main insurers in Rhode Island has raised objections to the bulletin, according to the report.
Rhode Island received an "F" on the Report Card on State Price Transparency Laws, which was released by the Health Care Incentives Improvement Institute and Catalyst for Payment Reform in March.
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In a bulletin, Health Insurance Commissioner Christopher F. Koller said the nondisclosure provisions between health insurers and providers "do not appear to have any real or ascertainable value," according to the report.
Starting June 1, insurers will be required to give healthcare providers any information pertaining to service prices that providers request. By April 2014, each insurer is then required to submit a plan to disclosing price information to the public.
Mr. Koller has reserved the possibility that not all information will be shared, however. "We're just saying, 'Tell us what your plan is, what you're going to disclose to who.' We didn't say everybody gets access to everything," he said in the report.
None of the three main insurers in Rhode Island has raised objections to the bulletin, according to the report.
Rhode Island received an "F" on the Report Card on State Price Transparency Laws, which was released by the Health Care Incentives Improvement Institute and Catalyst for Payment Reform in March.
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