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On Wednesday, October 22nd, the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging, Chaired by Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) held a hearing titled “Modernizing Health Care: How Shoppable Services Improve Outcomes and Lower Costs.” The discussion focused on the urgent need to make health care pricing more transparent. While current regulations aim to promote transparency, experts testified that most Americans still struggle to compare costs or make fully informed decisions about their care.    Who were the witnesses? 

• Mark Cuban: Co-founder of Cost-Plus Drugs Company  

• Dr. Keith Smith: Co-founder of The Surgery Center of Oklahoma and the Free Market Medical Association.  

• Dr. Don Moulds: Chief Health Director for the California public Employees Retirement System 

• Dr. Jeanne Lambrew: Director of Health Care Reform and Senior Fellow 

The witnesses described the different approaches they took in their companies to improve price transparency for their consumers. Mark Cuban highlighted how his company’s direct-to-consumer model eliminated intermediaries, allowing patients to access medications with transparent prices. Dr. Smith told the senators how The Surgery Center of Oklahoma publishes all-inclusive surgical prices, leading to high-quality care and patient satisfaction.  They also emphasized that although federal regulations are in place, there is a need to make the sharing of price information more consistent nationwide.    

AHPA extends our gratitude to our emerging colleague, Samantha Fragette, guest author of this article.  Samantha is an undergraduate student in the University of Central Florida’s School of Global Health Management and Informatics.