Getting Full Picture of Health Care Costs Can Be Guessing Game

As part of an ongoing push for greater price transparency, the federal government on Jan. 1 began requiring hospitals to post price lists on their websites.

It's not clear whether all of the state's hospitals have posted prices - there are no penalties for those that don't - but the Omaha metropolitan area's large health systems have met the mark. CHI Health and Methodist Health System, in fact, began offering online price tools in 2007.

Whether posting prices, at least as it's currently done, will encourage people to shop and drive significant savings, however, appears questionable.

Omaha World-Herald reporter Julie Anderson: Getting Full Picture of Health Care Costs Can Be Guessing Game