New Delhi, Oct. 27 -- On 12 October, the Union health ministry asked every state to make hospitals display their prices. It is a welcome step, but not enough. A hospital's rate card can list 2,000 prices, and a family in a crisis cannot make head or tail of it-nor does a list tell them what their final bill will be.

As a clinician and former hospital chief executive, I have seen why. Hospitals treat a wide range of ailments with advanced technologies and a wide variety of medications, so a single bill can run into hundreds of line items. And all the labour, materials and equipment used must be captured and fed to the billing system in real time-without errors. Families expect (almost demand) a narrow estimate. But each patient is unique,...