By using this site, you agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Accept
Health Works CollectiveHealth Works CollectiveHealth Works Collective
  • Health
    • Mental Health
    Health
    Healthcare organizations are operating on slimmer profit margins than ever. One report in August showed that they are even lower than the beginning of the…
    Show More
    Top News
    physical health
    5 Ways Playing Games Can Improve Neural and Physical Health
    September 9, 2022
    Reasons For Hair Loss and Its Treatment
    Reasons For Hair Loss and Its Treatment
    February 16, 2022
    healthcare organization
    5 Actionable Strategies For Healthcare Organizations
    August 15, 2022
    Latest News
    7 Most Common Healthcare Accreditation Programs: Which Should You Use?
    August 20, 2025
    Hospital Pest Control and the Fight Against Superbugs
    August 20, 2025
    Hygiene Beyond The Clinic: Attention To Overlooked Non-Clinical Spaces
    August 13, 2025
    5 Steps to a Promising Career as a Healthcare Administrator
    August 3, 2025
  • Policy and Law
    • Global Healthcare
    • Medical Ethics
    Policy and Law
    Get the latest updates about Insurance policies and Laws in the Healthcare industry for different geographical locations.
    Show More
    Top News
    Almost Anybody Qualifies for Medicaid in Maine
    November 23, 2012
    ebola and EHR
    Ebola: Are We Relying on EHR to Tell the Story?
    October 24, 2014
    Caitlin Kelly
    How Would You Fix Healthcare? – Question and Answers.
    January 16, 2013
    Latest News
    How Social Security Disability Shapes Access to Care and Everyday Health
    August 22, 2025
    How a DUI Lawyer Can Help When Your Future Health Feels Uncertain
    August 22, 2025
    How One Fall Can Lead to a Long Road of Medical Complications
    August 22, 2025
    How IT and Marketing Teams Can Collaborate to Protect Patient Trust
    July 17, 2025
  • Medical Innovations
  • News
  • Wellness
  • Tech
Search
© 2023 HealthWorks Collective. All Rights Reserved.
Reading: Medical Costs Could Fall by $36 Billion Annually With Price Transparency
Share
Notification Show More
Font ResizerAa
Health Works CollectiveHealth Works Collective
Font ResizerAa
Search
Follow US
  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy
© 2023 HealthWorks Collective. All Rights Reserved.
Health Works Collective > Business > Finance > Medical Costs Could Fall by $36 Billion Annually With Price Transparency
Finance

Medical Costs Could Fall by $36 Billion Annually With Price Transparency

dikedrummond
dikedrummond
Share
5 Min Read
medical costs with healthcare transparency save 36 billion
SHARE

 

Contents
  • Medical Costs Lower with Price Transparency – Imagine That !
    • What if everyone paid the lower price?
  • How can a patient get this price information easily?
    • Try this experiment.
  • Imagine what true healthcare price transparency might look like.
    • If that level of transparency ever happens I predict medical costs would drop for two reasons

 

medical costs with healthcare transparency save 36 billionMedical Costs Lower with Price Transparency – Imagine That !

In most markets around the USA, patients are incurring lower medical costs courtesy of a new wave of cash discounting for healthcare procedures and services.

Cash discounts lower medical costs by up to 89% in some cases as long as you know how to play the discount game.

More Read

AstraZeneca Doubles Down on Personalized Medicine
Genworth Publishes LTC Cost Data
Virtual Visits: Cutting Healthcare Costs
Entrepreneurs Must Integrate Mission-Driven Strategic Investors
6 Benefits of Becoming Accredited

If you tell the hospital about your insurance … they have to charge you the higher price and you will have to come out of pocket for your deductible.

If you don’t tell them about your insurance and pay with cash, check or credit card, you get the lower medical costs – in some cases, MUCH lower – but the payments don’t apply to your deductible.

What if everyone paid the lower price?

A white paper from Thomson Reuters reports on their study of what “price transparency” would mean to overall medical costs in the US on an annual basis. They come up with an annual savings of over $36,000,000,000.00 in medical costs – and their numbers are very conservative (see below).

The study analyzed the variation in prices in 300 “shoppable” procedures (high-volume procedures that consumers would plan for and schedule in advance) in every US market in their database.

Then they looked at the savings if prices lying above the median were simply moved to the median for each procedure. Their finally tally showed a savings of 3.55% which if you multiply it by the 108 million Americans under age 65 who are insured by their employer = $36 Billion.

How can a patient get this price information easily?

In most markets — you simply can’t. Pricing for healthcare procedures is a black box.

Try this experiment.

 

Call your doctor or hospital and ask them what it would cost you for a simple procedure like a chest X-ray or EKG. You ONLY want the procedure and you are paying CASH.

If they can answer your question quickly and easily … congratulations. You might want request they put those medical costs up on the web — so you don’t have to call next time.

However, the more likely scenario is that they will have a great deal of difficulty giving you a quick answer. In some cases you will be told, “No one has ever asked us that … I’m sorry, we will have to call you back.” If you can get the information and you call several clinics, the prices are likely to be wildly different. You won’t find pricing information on anyone’s website.

The Thomson Reuters report calls this a lack of “price transparency”. In many cases it is a simple case of price availability. They assume that patients would choose to lower their medical costs if they could get price information easily. Makes sense to me.

Imagine what true healthcare price transparency might look like.

– Imagine a price list like the one at the drive through for McDonalds — except that this one shows the hospital lab and procedure prices and is posted on the wall in the lab reception area.

– Or a page on your hospital website giving you today’s cash prices for all their procedures

If that level of transparency ever happens I predict medical costs would drop for two reasons

1) You would find the differences between the insured price and cash price vanish over night. That discrepancy in medical costs would never stand up to public scrutiny.

2) Price competition would break out between hospitals in the same market resulting in lower medical costs for everyone. Imagine that !

And the next time you want to pay cash for a colonoscopy because insurance won’t cover it … you will be able to find the clinic/hospital with the lowest medical costs quickly and easily — most likely at a price well below what is being charged today.

Here’s the link to the Thomson Reuters Medical Costs with Price Transparency Study

============

 

TAGGED:healthcare costs
Share This Article
Facebook Copy Link Print
Share

Stay Connected

1.5kFollowersLike
4.5kFollowersFollow
2.8kFollowersPin
136kSubscribersSubscribe

Latest News

engineer fitting prosthetic arm
How Social Security Disability Shapes Access to Care and Everyday Health
Health care
August 20, 2025
a woman explaining the document
How a DUI Lawyer Can Help When Your Future Health Feels Uncertain
Public Health
August 20, 2025
physiotherapist at work
How One Fall Can Lead to a Long Road of Medical Complications
Health care
August 20, 2025
Common Healthcare Accreditation Programs
7 Most Common Healthcare Accreditation Programs: Which Should You Use?
Health News
August 20, 2025

You Might also Like

5 Tips for Preventing Reimbursement Loss in Radiology Billing

August 2, 2014
annual-growth-rates-national-healthcare-spending
BusinessFinanceHealth ReformPolicy & LawPublic Health

Why Did Health Spending Slow Down Before It Sped Up?

May 13, 2014
pay per click advertising
BusinessFinance

Wallet Burn and the Nasty Side of Pay-per-Click Advertising

April 25, 2015
hospital technology
BusinessFinanceHospital AdministrationTechnology

Hospitals Ignore Bill Payment Technology and Suffer the Consequences

April 12, 2013
Subscribe
Subscribe to our newsletter to get our newest articles instantly!
Follow US
© 2008-2025 HealthWorks Collective. All Rights Reserved.
  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy
Welcome Back!

Sign in to your account

Username or Email Address
Password

Lost your password?