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So can anyone who is in the medical field shed some light on this? Because if I was under obligation to list prices but didn’t want to I would probably inflate them like this too since I can give arbitrary 99% discounts.

Without a requirement that hospitals list their prices by billing code and must actually charge that price to everyone across the board with no adjustments or discounts laws like this are basically useless.

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Even then it would be kinda useless, because of the difference between hypothetical billing codes 22934a "Stitches, easy location, no complications" and 22934z "Stitches, weird location, infection present, uncooperative patient, resistance or allergy to common anaesthetics". Which is often very much up to interpretation and discussion as well.

So why did they bother with the law?

To make it sound like they're doing something about an issue (healthcare) which continually ranks highest on American's priorities without actually disrupting the status quo?

But this is pissing off both the people who did want it, because it’s extra regulation, and also the people who didn’t want it, because it’s ineffective. Nobody is happy.

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