Hospital Price Transparency in Action: An Analysis of Radiology Procedure Price Variation in Children's Hospitals Between 2023 and 2024.

The Federal Hospital Price Transparency Final Rule enables parties such as patients, hospitals, and payers to view comprehensive pricing for U.S. hospital services, which encourages both patient financial decision making and market competition to potentially affect future hospital pricing. This study examines price levels and price variation for three common outpatient imaging procedures-MRI brain with and without contrast, radiograph chest (2-view), and nuclear medicine gastric emptying-across 26 U.S. children's hospitals in 2023 and 2024. Data from machine readable files from hospital websites such as gross charges, cash prices, and payer specific negotiated rates for five major commercial insurers were collected to analyze trends. Findings show a statistically significant decrease in price variation, with the coefficient of variation (CV) for negotiated rates declining by 19.2% but overall prices continuing to rise, with payer specific negotiated rates increasing by an average 6.7%. Price transparency policies may contribute to reduced price dispersion; however, the average price did increase.