Each week, staff at Carolina Journal looks back at the week in N.C. politics and chooses several interesting, relevant stories you may have missed. Medical bills and price transparency: Patients will have an easier time knowing what they’ll pay for medical services at UNC Health. The system will roll out an online tool that will give patients an estimate of the cost of some procedures and visits. But the new price transparency is the result of new rules from the Trump administration. President Trump required hospitals to post their prices by January. Hospitals sued to keep prices secret, but they lost the first round in court in June. A federal judge ruled that hospitals were “attacking transparency measures generally” to restrict patients’ access to medical prices. Medical prices are notoriously opaque, and hospitals account for much of the soaring cost of health care in the U.S. In North Carolina, some hospitals charge patients more than twice as much as others — but multiple studies show that higher prices don’t correspond with better care. New Hanover Regional Medical Center charged patients with private insurance some 219% of Medicare’s rates. But Vidant Edgecombe Hospital doubled those prices in Tarboro — and raked in 455% of Medicare’s rates, according to Rand Corporation. “UNC Health is a leader in providing innovative care and services for our patients,” said Dr. Wesley Burks, CEO of UNC Health, in a news release. “We understand the importance of price transparency in health care. This estimator is about improving our patients’ experience and giving them more control in managing their health.”