You can see hospital procedure prices online starting Jan. 1

New year, clearer hospital bills.

A federal rule change requiring hospitals to post their procedure prices online will officially take effect Jan. 1. It won't detail what costs are covered by insurance and government programs, but should give patients a better idea of what eventually shows up on their bill, per The Associated Press.

The Department of Health and Human Services first announced the new mandate in April as part of a Medicare services rule change. Called the Inpatient Prospective Payment System rule, the new policy is aimed at stopping "surprise bills" from hospitals, the April press release said. And on Tuesday, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services head Seema Verma announced the new rule was official.

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Hospitals already have price information readily available, and the new rule just requires it's posted online, Verma told AP. The policy change also hones in on electronic medical records, asking technology companies to develop ways to consolidate records from across medical facilities into one easy-to-use portal. In the future, how well hospitals' records portals work could determine how much federal funding they receive.

Patients will still have to talk with their insurers to clarify exactly what they're expected to pay before it shows up on a bill. But Verma promised this is "just [the] beginning on price transparency," AP reports, and the policy change suggests deeper work on online records is yet to come.