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
    medicare part d benefits
    Everything that You Need to Know About Medicare Part D
    August 15, 2022
    Best Ways to Boost Your Immune System this Winter
    Best Ways to Boost Your Immune System this Winter
    November 15, 2022
    back pain issues
    Ways to Treat Constant Back Pain
    August 21, 2023
    Latest News
    How Probate Planning Shapes the Future of Your Estate and Family Care
    July 17, 2025
    Beyond Nutrition: Everyday Foods That Support Whole-Body Health
    June 15, 2025
    The Wide-Ranging Benefits of Magnesium Supplements
    June 11, 2025
    The Best Home Remedies for Migraines
    June 5, 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
    More On Wellness Programs To Improve Health and Reduce Costs
    January 25, 2012
    Privatizing Social Security and Medicare: Who Can Defuse Political Dynamite?
    June 12, 2011
    Study: Risk of Death in Elderly Patients with Dementia Doubled with Some Antipsychotic Medications
    February 26, 2012
    Latest News
    How IT and Marketing Teams Can Collaborate to Protect Patient Trust
    July 17, 2025
    How Health Choices and Legal Actions Intersect After an Injury
    July 17, 2025
    How communities and healthcare providers can address slip and fall injuries with legal awareness
    July 17, 2025
    Let Your Lawyer Handle the Work Before You Pay Medical Costs
    July 6, 2025
  • Medical Innovations
  • News
  • Wellness
  • Tech
Search
© 2023 HealthWorks Collective. All Rights Reserved.
Reading: Price Transparency: The Devil is in the Detail for Hospitals
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 > Price Transparency: The Devil is in the Detail for Hospitals
BusinessFinanceHospital Administration

Price Transparency: The Devil is in the Detail for Hospitals

Lonnie Hirsch
Lonnie Hirsch
Share
6 Min Read
healthcare price transparency
SHARE

healthcare price transparencyLet’s say an informed patient determined that the cost for “arteriography and angiocardiography using contrast material” was half as expensive at “Hospital A” as compared to “Hospital B.” At half price, would they want to buy two procedures?

healthcare price transparencyLet’s say an informed patient determined that the cost for “arteriography and angiocardiography using contrast material” was half as expensive at “Hospital A” as compared to “Hospital B.” At half price, would they want to buy two procedures? On the other hand, does the consumer trust that “cheapest available” is the ideal purchase decision in health care?

More realistically, would a prospective patient understand and use the correct terminology? Would they recognize what additional hospital costs are typically associated with the price of the procedure?

Hospitals, physicians and healthcare communicators are grappling with the devilish details of healthcare price transparency. With healthcare transition propelling change, the overarching goals and objectives are praiseworthy. But the high road to meaningful implementation is bumpy at best.

More Read

How To Find a Job in Home Health Care, Elder Care, or Aging Using Social Media
Health Care Buzz Today
Personalized Prevention, Part I
Is Fee-For-Service the Problem?
How to Manage the Online Reputation of Your Medical Practice

For marketing professionals, additional challenges are in how to inform “payers and patients who want to know up front what they have to pay for care. It’s not an easy question.

Some hospitals are making it happen,” according to Hospitals & Health Networks, the flagship publication of the American Hospital Association. Here’s how they framed the issue for an in-depth article recently:

  • Hospitals must become more transparent about the cost of care they provide.
  • Payers and employers want to know costs up front and to compare hospitals for value.
  • Patients want to know up front what their out-of-pocket expenses will be.
  • Some hospitals have set up consumer pricing hotlines and online cost-estimator tools.
  • Some hospitals offer all-inclusive packaged prices for certain services and procedures.
  • Employers will pay travel expenses to patients who go to one of their designated hospitals, even if it’s far from their home base, if they feel they cannot get the same value locally.

Massachusetts Requires Price Tags For Health Care

As of this month, “Massachusetts is the first state to require that insurers offer real-time prices,” according to WBUR’s CommonHealth article. But opening this information channel unleashes caveats and consumer confusion. In the new Massachusetts system, the author found:

  • Prices are not standard; they vary from one insurer to the next.
  • Posted prices may or may not include all charges.
  • Prices seem to change frequently.
  • There is no standard list of priced tests and procedures.
  • The quality information is weak.
  • There are very few prices for inpatient care.

“Price transparency stinks in health care.”

The attention-getting Washington Post headline introduced another article about how the healthcare industry wants to improve Price Transparency in Health Care and an informative report from the Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA) Price Transparency Task Force.

In part, the Guiding Principles and Policy Considerations from the HFMA Task Force direct, “To be effective, price transparency must offer clear information that is readily accessible to patients and enables them to make meaningful comparisons among providers.

  • Price transparency should empower patients and other care purchasers to make meaningful price comparisons prior to receiving care.
  • Any form of price transparency should be easy to use and easy to communicate to stakeholders.
  • Price transparency information should be paired with other information that defines the value of services for the care purchaser.
  • Price transparency should ultimately provide patients with the information they need to understand the total price of their care and what is included in that price.
  • Price transparency will require the commitment and active participation of all stakeholders.

Communications, marketing and advertising challenges…

In a retail environment—when there’s an apples-to-apples comparison—competitive pricing is easier for the consumer to understand and use as a purchase decision guidepost. Similarly, price comparisons may be helpful when the health care service or product is elective care (and often a purely cash purchase).

But meaningful price transparency for hospitals and inpatient medical procedures and services can be confounded by “too much information.” Often, the consumer has no reasonable way to compare data points. And, to further compound the problem, the individual nature of healthcare usually means that the final cost will vary from person to person according to their medical needs.

A communications downside is that the end-user/patient is more confused that ever by the transparency, including several databases, by unfamiliar clinical terms, and by a lack of uniformity for comparisons. And when people are confused, they don’t act.

A Toolkit for Hospitals…

“[The] consumer demand for meaningful and transparent price information will only continue to grow,” in the view of the American Hospital Association. “To meet this demand, hospitals and health systems must take a critical look at where they currently fall on the price transparency spectrum and take steps to improve how they communicate pricing information with patients and their community.

“The American Hospital Association has developed Achieving Price Transparency for Consumers: A Toolkit for Hospitals. [Available online here.] This resource includes a self-assessment checklist, case examples from hospitals around the nation, sample web-based tools, and other resources.

We welcome your thoughts on the challenges of price transparency.

TAGGED:transparency
Share This Article
Facebook Copy Link Print
Share

Stay Connected

1.5kFollowersLike
4.5kFollowersFollow
2.8kFollowersPin
136kSubscribersSubscribe

Latest News

Grounded Healing: A Natural Ally for Sustainable Healthcare Systems
How IT and Marketing Teams Can Collaborate to Protect Patient Trust
Global Healthcare Policy & Law
July 17, 2025
paramedics in surgical gloves and masks
How Health Choices and Legal Actions Intersect After an Injury
Health care
July 16, 2025
a woman giving a key
How Probate Planning Shapes the Future of Your Estate and Family Care
Health
July 16, 2025
a woman with kinesio tapes on her back arm
How communities and healthcare providers can address slip and fall injuries with legal awareness
Health care
July 16, 2025

You Might also Like

The Penalty Box for hospitals
BusinessHealth ReformHospital AdministrationPolicy & Law

The Penalty Box: CMS’s 3 Ways to Ding Hospitals

June 28, 2014
revenue cycle
BusinessFinanceHospital Administration

10 Steps to Boosting Profitability Through the Revenue Cycle

July 1, 2014

VC Funding Drops for Biotech, Medical Devices. Should We Worry?

October 19, 2011

Who Owns Frozen Embryos?

December 30, 2011
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?