There's nothing in this ruling that requires the price list, even online, to fit within your heuristic.
The hospital could choose to place the price list at a url of blahblahhospital dot com / 3424kjfksm34. And to get that URL, you have to call the hospital and ask for it. There is nothing in the rule going into effect on Jan 1 that says they have to plaster the price list on their front page or on Google.
For that matter, they still could give separate price lists to different parties, as long as said price lists are 'online' (eg price list for you is at our_prices dot html, whereas someone else's price list is at our_other_prices dot html).
And, beyond all of this, is the fact that even if you do get access to the price list, it is meaningless to you as a patient. The article discusses this. As a patient, if you want to know an actual realistic estimate of your costs, the only way to get that is to call/go into the hospital and ask, or to go through your insurance company estimator, both of which are already available and aren't changed by this new ruling.
Your points are all legitimate and ones I agree with, but I just don't think this new HHS rule does anything to meaningfully address them.
The hospital could choose to place the price list at a url of blahblahhospital dot com / 3424kjfksm34. And to get that URL, you have to call the hospital and ask for it. There is nothing in the rule going into effect on Jan 1 that says they have to plaster the price list on their front page or on Google.
For that matter, they still could give separate price lists to different parties, as long as said price lists are 'online' (eg price list for you is at our_prices dot html, whereas someone else's price list is at our_other_prices dot html).
And, beyond all of this, is the fact that even if you do get access to the price list, it is meaningless to you as a patient. The article discusses this. As a patient, if you want to know an actual realistic estimate of your costs, the only way to get that is to call/go into the hospital and ask, or to go through your insurance company estimator, both of which are already available and aren't changed by this new ruling.
Your points are all legitimate and ones I agree with, but I just don't think this new HHS rule does anything to meaningfully address them.