Committee hears bill to require hospitals post prices in dollars

The Labor, Health & Social Services Committee heard testimony Feb. 19 on House Bill 121, the "Hospital Price Transparency Act," which would require hospitals to publish machine‑readable lists of standard charges in dollars — including gross charges, payer‑specific negotiated charges, de‑identified minimum and maximum negotiated charges and discounted cash prices — and give the Wyoming Department of Health authority to monitor compliance and pursue corrective actions.

Representative Daniel Singh, sponsor of HB 121, said the bill is intended to give “the customers ... who are ultimately affected the most” clearer price information and to make a searchable, public file available on hospital websites and indexable by commercial search engines. Singh explained the bill borrows formatting and a shoppable‑services list from Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) guidance and would require a consumer‑friendly list of shoppable services in addition to the machine‑readable file.

The bill would require hospitals to make the files available free of…