The Presidential Price Transparency Executive Order Is Irrelevant and Speciously Justified

This IDC Perspective presents that after CMS mandates for payers and providers emerged in response to "surprise billing" and obfuscation of medical pricing, now there is an "executive order." This order is speciously rationalized and ignores the fact that this concept is an expensive proposition of limited value, with legitimate pushback and sensible historical noncompliance by hospitals and payers. "Price transparency at a cursory level has been around for years, barely used by the average consumer. It was restarted as a political talking point in 2020 with mandates and now with an executive order in 2025. Significant technological enhancements are necessary if it is to be realized in payers, and some consumer expectations are totally unrealistic in commercial healthcare," states Jeff Rivkin, research director, IDC Health Insights. "One should doubt whether 'all' procedures can achieve exact predictive transparency and whether there is a large consumer desire or medical literacy to actually shop for procedures. Payers should determine comprehensively if they want to do the mandated compliance minimum or try to factor price transparency into enhancing the member's healthcare experience ostensibly toward differentiating service excellence."