California State Senator Ellen Corbett has introduced a bill that would prevent hospitals and health insurers from using non-disclosure agreements when negotiating prices, which would effectively force hospitals to release negotiated prices to the public. Supporters of the bill say that improved price transparency could help consumers shop for care more thoughtfully while weighing both quality and cost.

California's Department of Managed Health Care has proposed rules that would prevent physicians from billing patients for additional charges beyond the costs of in-network care covered by insurance. Typically, billing disputes arise when patients go to in-network hospitals or emergency rooms for treatment but are inadvertently treated by an out-of-network physician who has not accepted the HMO's negotiated price. Physicians, in a process called balanced billing, can then directly bill the patient for the difference between the two fees.