An Update on Price / Cost Transparency + A Promising New Service

By STEVEN FINDLAY Transparency for consumers on prices and costs is a bipartisan goal in healthcare.  The good news is progress is afoot.  The bad news: that progress is still painfully slow.  This blog presents a quick status update with discussion of and links to some recent reports and events. The Healthcare Incentives Improvement Institute (HCI3) and Catalyst for Payment Reform (CPR) have tracked state healthcare price transparency laws and their implementation for the past four years.  In a July 2016 report they found the following:  on an A to F scale, three states got As (Colorado, Maine, New Hampshire); one got a B (Oregon); two scored Cs (Virginia and Vermont), one got a D (Arizona), and 43 got Fs. That’s an improvement over 2015 when only one state—New Hampshire—got an A. The two groups primarily assessed whether the states’ price transparency web sites presented the information in an understandable and consumer-friendly way. Despite the poor scores for most states, Francois de Brantes of HCI3 and one of the report’s authors told me:  “We’re actually optimistic.  A lot of states are beginning to pay more serious attention to this…we think a third to half of them could get As or Bs in the next few years… if they take the right steps.” The report notes that more states are debating laws that would require providers or insurers to disclose prices to patients prior to a procedure or service.  De Brantes believes such laws are a good idea, bu...
Source: The Health Care Blog - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs