June 18, 2019
The White House recently released an executive order aimed at requiring insurers, physicians and hospitals to provide patients with more digestible information about the cost of their care before they receive it.
This latest EO follows a series of similar directives in the health space, including those on expansion of association health plans, short-term limited duration insurance and health reimbursement arrangements. As with these prior EOs, this is expected to drive future rulemaking activity at the agencies and represents a first step in that longer process. The agencies may or may not have statutory authority to fulfill the EO’s directives and any resulting rulemakings could – as with previous EO-driven rules – be subject to litigation challenges. To the extent Council members are impacted by the issues raised in the EO, we will have opportunities to weigh in with the agencies to help shape any final regulatory measures.