‘An Arm and a Leg’: Host Dan Weissmann Talks Price Transparency on ‘Axios Today’

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As we settle into the new year, we have two small doses of good news.

First, a new federal rule could help cut through one health care issue. Host Dan Weissmann talked about the rule — which requires hospitals to make public the prices they negotiate with insurers — in a short conversation with his former public-radio colleague, Niala Boodhoo, for the daily-news podcast “Axios Today.”

You’ll find more detail on that rule in this story from reporter Celia Llopis-Jepsen, whose reporting about a $50,000 “air ambulance” ride formed the core of a recent episode about how consumers get squeezed by insurers on one side and providers on the other.

Later in the episode, a listener describes how he used what he learned from “An Arm and a Leg” to head off an insurance nightmare.

Here’s a transcript for this episode.

“An Arm and a Leg” is a co-production of Kaiser Health News and Public Road Productions.

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This story was produced by KHN (Kaiser Health News), a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues. Together with Policy Analysis and Polling, KHN is one of the three major operating programs at KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation). KFF is an endowed nonprofit organization providing information on health issues to the nation.

KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF—an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF.