Highlights from this week's Healthcare Transparency News, Studies, and Articles:
Shopping tools help patients find cash prices for medical procedures
[By: , LA Times]
“‘The demand is out there. People in general know how to shop, and they are just learning how to shop in the medical marketplace,’ says Dr. Peter LePort, a general surgeon.
… There’s a race underway to develop useful tools patients can put to practical use.”
Americans rank cost and transparency as top health care priorities, survey says
[By: Adrian Florido, Southern California Public Radio (KPCC)]
“When it comes to health care, Americans say affordability and transparency are their top priorities, according to a new survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation.”
Radiologists follow FedEx with flat-rate prices. Is this the future of health care?
[By: J.K. Wall, Indianapolis Business Journal]
“…I was especially intrigued by a new flat-rate pricing scheme introduced this year by Northwest Radiology Network.”
Transparency: How Healthcare Cost Competes With Real Value
[By: , Healthcare Success Blog]
“Doctors, medical practices and their respective business offices might want to compare the charges for common procedures just as the consumer does. An increasing number of price transparency tools are available online to discover where you stand.”
The controversial, uncertain future of the healthcare ‘consumer’—and why it matters
[By: Katie Bo Williams, Healthcare Dive]
The first in a two part series. “Healthcare Dive looks at the controversial evolution of the “patient” into the “consumer” and how it continues to fundamentally change the business of providing healthcare in ways that are both positive—and incredibly risky.”
Things fall apart: How the ‘healthcare consumer’ model could break down
[By: Katie Bo Williams, Healthcare Dive]
The second in a two part series.
TransUnion Healthcare Report Finds Both Patients and Hospital Administrators Feeling the Squeeze of Increased Costs
[By: TransUnion]
“Deductibles have nearly doubled over the past five years through the adoption of high deductible plans offered by employers and the implementation of the Affordable Care Act,” said Gerry McCarthy, president of TransUnion Healthcare. “We will be tracking this trend closely as we suspect that average deductibles could rise much more in the coming years. The continued increase in deductibles will place even more importance on transparency of costs…”
New Research from Alegeus Technologies Reveals that Consumers Enrolled in Consumer Directed Healthcare Plans Are Nearly 50% More Likely to Research & Compare Costs for Healthcare Products & Services
[By: Alegeus Technologies, Business Wire]
Three Key Lessons from the Health Care Transparency Summit
[By: Anne Weiss, Susan Dentzer, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation]
“Here are our key takeaways reflecting how much transparency discussions have advanced since the first RWJF sponsored summit…”
Also see this related blog post on Health Affairs Blog:
Building Cost transparency From The Ground Up
[By: Tara Oakman, HealthAffairsBlog]
Small funding round a big event for Bellevue startup’s unique health care product
[By: Annie Zak, Puget Sound Business Journal]
“Health care transparency startup Mpirica Health Analytics has nabbed $1.6 million in funding just three months after its launch. The Bellevue-based company’s Series A round is courtesy of private investor McQuinn Trust. The money will launch a national marketing campaign targeting self-insured employers and consumers.”
Doctible Unveils New Platform for the Consumer-Driven Healthcare Market
[By: Press Release, KCEN TV]
“Doctible closes $700k seed round to bring transparency to healthcare, providing consumers with the ability to view doctor prices before booking their appointment online.”
Change Healthcare, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health to Investigate Link Between Transparency and Consumerism
[By: PR Newswire]
Governor could finally give consumers an effective All-Payer Claims Database (Washington State)
[By: National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB)]
“In a big victory for the Coalition for Health Care Cost Transparency, the Legislature, with huge bipartisan support, late last week passed a bill to establish a fully functional All-Payer Claims Database (APCD), which would give health-care consumers something they have long sought: The ability to shop and compare prices among health providers.”
Healthcare Industry Convinces Courtney to Kill Price Transparency Bill (Oregon)
[By: Chris Gray, The Lund Report]
“A compromise measure from Sen. Steiner Hayward that would have opened up health insurance tools with price information to all consumers won the needed support of Sen. Monnes Anderson, but last-minute pressure on the state’s top lawmaker stopped the price transparency bill dead in its tracks.”
Conversation With: Physician/Inventor Dr. David Albert On The ‘Uberfication’ Of Healthcare
[By: , D Magazine]
“…Now we have individuals going into the insurance market going into the exchanges buying healthcare for themselves. People never used to ask what that bypass surgery costs, what that pacemaker, what that mastectomy costs. … Nobody asked those questions, but those questions are going to be asked. Price shopping, bargain hunting are going to be injected.”
More patients ‘comparison-shop’ hospital fees online
[By: , Mansfield News Journal]
“Within the last four or five years, people are becoming much more conscientious consumers with their health care dollars.” – Lois Peoples, spokeswoman for Morrow County Hospital
Healthcare On-Demand, Airbnb Style
[By: Founder and CEO of Medlio, HIT Consultant]
“If healthcare is becoming “cashified”… and I am buying healthcare services on my own – I want an experience like Airbnb. … The bottom line is that the market should be setting the price, not insurance companies, and most definitely not the federal government.”
Consumer transparency isn’t all about price
[By: Mark Herzog is president and CEO of Holy Family Memorial, HTR Media]
Consumers must balance decisions by considering price,quality and expectations
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