Trump said Friday heholds "all the cards" in the negotiations, though he seeks measuressuch as a payroll tax cut in addition to a provision on hospitalprice transparency. (Photo: AP)

(Bloomberg) –The White House wants Congress to require hospitalsand insurers to reveal the prices they negotiate for medicalservices as part of any additional round of coronavirus stimulus,in an effort to short-circuit a legal battle with the health careindustry.

The U.S. Health and Human Services Department published two regulations last year requiringhospitals and insurers to make their prices public. The industryhas challenged the hospital rule in court, arguing it's a violationof the First Amendment, and successfully delayed itsimplementation.

The White House believes writing the requirement into law wouldend the court battle, according to people familiar with thematter.

Related: How will the CMS's new health care pricetransparency rule play out?

President Donald Trump and many lawmakers have long pushed formore transparency regarding hospital prices, which health policyexperts blame in part for the U.S. enduring some of the highesthealth-care costs in the world. But the latest push comes at asensitive time, as hospitals struggle to combat a coronavirusoutbreak that has also damaged them financially.

While treating thousands of infected Americans, hospitals havehad to cancel many profitable elective procedures. They've alsoseen many of their patients lose better-paying private healthinsurance coverage as the outbreak put millions of Americans out ofwork.

Trump re-tweeted an advocacy group for price transparency onThursday, after the organization, took to Twitter to thank thepresident for his "BOLD leadership during the #Covid19 crisis."

One official said the White House would be interested intransparency legislation if there's another stimulus package.

The House on Friday night passed a $3 trillion bill thatRepublicans have criticized as an assemblage of Democraticwish-list items with no chance of becoming law.

Trump said Friday he holds "all the cards" in the negotiations,though he seeks measures such as a payroll tax cut in addition to aprovision on hospital price transparency.

White House spokesman Judd Deere added in a statement Friday:"President Trump has taken the most aggressive action on healthcare price transparency in history and would welcome any efforts byCongress to complement and reinforce our actions to put real pricesin the hands of consumers."

If he's successful, the policy could dramatically change billingin health care and the way the hospital industry conductstransactions. Both hospitals and insurers say revealing negotiatedprices they say are proprietary could have the unintended effect ofraising costs for consumers.

Interest groups including the American Hospital Association andAmerica's Health Insurance Plans are opposed to the pricetransparency effort.

Read more: 

• CMS price transparency rule would address just 12%of health care spending
• Price disparities challenge ability of transparencyexecutive order
• CMS may lack authority to compel hospitals to tellnegotiated prices

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