The New York Times reports, “This year, the federal government ordered hospitals to begin publishing a prized secret: a complete list of the prices they negotiate with private insurers.” The Times says “data from the hospitals that have complied hints at why the powerful industries wanted this information to remain hidden.” It “shows hospitals are charging patients wildly different amounts for the same basic services: procedures as simple as an X-ray or a pregnancy test.” And it “provides numerous examples of major health insurers – some of the world’s largest companies, with billions in annual profits – negotiating surprisingly unfavorable rates for their customers.” In many cases, insured patients “are getting prices that are higher than they would if they pretended to have no coverage at all.”

From the news release of the American Association for Justice.