Some Hospitals Now Offering Price Estimates; More Transparency for " Shoppable " Services

It has been frequently stated that healthcare needs to be more consumer friendly (see:Making Hospital-Based Labs More Consumer Friendly). This applies partly to the pricing of hospital services. In prior blog notes, I have stated that a bill for an inpatient stay has little bearing on the cost of the services for the hospital (see, for example:Coding for Hospital Services; One Reason for the High Cost of Healthcare;Patients' Out-of-Pocket Healthcare Costs Rising; Expect More Consumer Backlash). A recent article indicated that some hospitals are beginning to offer price estimates to help ameliorate consumer dissatisfaction (see:Some hospitals are already offering price estimates). This is a beginning of the process of making hospital billing more understandable and perhaps lower the cost of care by increasing competition. It's a long article so follow the link for more details if you are interested. Below is an excerpt from it:The CMS...[has] issued several proposed rules that, among other changes, would require hospitals to publish payer-negotiated prices for various services alongside standard gross charges. The goal is to make it easier for patients to understand the cost of a hospital service before accessing care, according to agency leadership. Starting in January 2019, the CMS began requiring hospitals to publish their list of retail charges for healthcare services —a move that's been roundly criticized since patients rarely pay those rates.But under the l...

Source: Lab Soft News - August 4, 2019 Category: Laboratory Medicine Authors: Bruce Friedman Tags: Cost of Healthcare Direct Access Testing (DAT) Healthcare Business Healthcare Information Technology Healthcare Innovations Hospital Financial Radiology Source Type: blogs