EDITORIAL: Medical pricing info is welcome

Sept. 08--You've got health insurance, but it comes with a high deductible, which means you're paying a lot out of your own pocket.

If only someone would tell you exactly how much your medical procedure is going to cost.

It's a simple request, right?

But if you've ever tried to get a straight answer out of your doctor or a hospital about your out-of-pocket expenses for a procedure, you're often frustrated by how much they won't tell you.

Well, many CDPHP members won't have to go through that frustration anymore.

The membership-based health care plan announced recently that it is now providing pricing information on 19 medical procedures to members with high-deductible insurance health plans. These services include baby deliveries, certain MRIs and CT scans, EKGs, hip replacements, even tonsillectomies.

Members simply call in and a representative will provide a range of estimated costs to help individuals decide on a doctor.

This is a big step in the right direction.

Nearly 40 percent of Americans between the ages of 18 to 64 are enrolled in a high-deductible health plans. So knowing the costs of medical procedures is vital to a large number of people.

Yet we've long been kept in the dark.

That needs to change across the entire medical community. And CDPHP should be commended for taking this step toward transparency in medical pricing.

But citizens should be aware that being provided with a range of prices on services isn't a miracle cure for high medical costs.

Researchers at Harvard University found that savings aren't as much as one would expect because patients don't often base their selection of a medical procedure on price alone. They talk to friends and family members. They take recommendations from physicians they trust. They go by feel, such as whether they feel comfortable with a doctor.

Some people, the study found, will actually use the pricing information to select the higher-priced medical service, believing higher price means higher quality.

Location is another factor. If one can get a medical procedure at a lower price, but have to travel an inconvenient distance to get it, many will choose the closer, more expensive option.

Also, the costs of many medical procedures can't be determined in advance, so the opportunities for savings are limited.

Information about the cost of medical procedures should be considered an important tool to have at our disposal.

But we still need to do our own research on pricing and quality of care to determine what's best for our own individual situations.

Still, as we say when fighting for your right to know about your government, information is power. And the more people are exposed to the true costs of medical procedures, the more informed decisions they can make about their own care and the more they can use that as clout to collectively demand lower prices.

Let's hope this trend toward transparency in pricing continues.

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