New regulations have promised to upend one of healthcare’s thorniest problems: the utter lack of visibility into what things cost until after care is provided.
Despite progress exposing cash-pay prices, the promise of hospital price transparency has yet to be realized. According to one survey, 86% of hospitals have not complied with new hospital transparency requirements to post standard charges in a machine-readable format.
The No Surprises Act, designed to curtail surprise medical bills, was initially delayed. Now, provider groups including the American Medical association and the American Hospital Association are fighting certain provisions of the surprise billing law in court.
These implementation delays have left consumers without the financial clarity they badly need. Two-thirds of Americans reported fear that they’d be unable to afford surprise medical bills and 36% have hesitated to go to the emergency room—or skipped care altogether—because of that uncertainty.
In one survey, 86% of people surveyed said they would compare prices before going to the hospital if they could.
Now they can.
Today, Turquoise Health, a price transparency solution provider, announced that it is launching the beta version of its Price Transparency Scorecard. The new tool allows consumers to search hospitals’ machine-readable files, which are large and complex data sets that would otherwise be difficult for the average consumer to sift through.
This development means that consumers can now compare hospitals and know what their costs will be before they get care. Hospitals themselves can also see how they stack up compared to others in their market or around the country.
The company says it uses 60 pieces of information to build a score based on a five-star rating system. Overall, the company reports that nearly 3,000 hospitals received a score of 4 or 5, accounting for nearly 72% of hospitals reviewed. On the other end of the spectrum, 705 hospitals, or 17% of the total, earned just 2 stars.
A previous Turquoise Health analysis showed that approximately 2,000 hospitals, out of 6,000 reviewed, were considered highly transparent about their negotiated rates with insurers.
According to Marcus Dorstel, head of operations at Turquoise Health, there aren’t particular patterns among hospitals who comply versus hospitals who don’t in terms of size or other characteristics. It’s the market in which a hospital operates that appears to be the most significant factor in whether or not they comply.
“Certain markets have less compliance because no provider wants to be the first to comply and put their prices out there,” Dorstel said.
But he says the distinctions between hospitals that comply and those that do not is fading as more hospitals get on board with the new rules.
“There has been a lot of momentum and support behind the recent price transparency legislation, so much so that it seems to be here to stay,” he said.
These developments should be good for consumers—if they understand them. But according to Dorstel, most consumers don’t realize that healthcare prices are now publicly available and accessible or that these prices can vary wildly from provider to provider, even with the same insurance plan.
“By shopping around for healthcare, the way you might for a hotel or flights, you find more cost-effective options and save a good amount of money,” Dorstel said. “Knowing the price of a service before you get it can also help avoid a lot of financial troubles and medical debt.”
The Link LonkMarch 15, 2022 at 02:05AM
https://www.forbes.com/sites/debgordon/2022/03/14/despite-new-rules-its-been-hard-to-find-hospital-prices-until-now/
Despite New Rules, It’s Been Hard To Find Hospital Prices—Until Now - Forbes
https://news.google.com/search?q=hard&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en
No comments:
Post a Comment