Getting clear prices for hospital care could get easier under a proposed rule

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2023/08/10/ [login to see] /getting-clear-prices-for-hospital-care-could-get-easier-under-a-proposed-rule
"How much is the ice cream?" A simple enough question, featured on a new TV and online advertisement, posed by a man who just wants something cold. A woman behind the counter responds with a smile: "Prices? No, we don't have those anymore. We have estimates."

The satirical ad pretends to be highlighting a "trend" in which more retail outlets take up "the hospital pricing method": substituting estimates for actual prices for meals, merchandise on store shelves, and clothing. The scene ends with a partially deleted expletive from the ice cream-seeking man.

While the use of estimates in retail settings is imaginary and preposterous, the advertisement is part of an ongoing campaign by the advocacy group Patient Rights Advocate, which contends that some hospitals are still falling short of a law that went into effect in 2021 requiring them to publicly post their prices.