Hospital price search 'frustrating' for consumers, report says
Finding prices for health care procedures on
In addition to finding "great variations in prices for several common procedures," researchers determined that discounted cash price information — the rate a hospital would charge individuals who pay cash — was unavailable for 37% of the hospitals in the study.
"Even among hospitals that post some discounted cash prices, there are varying rates of compliance with posting prices of all the procedures for which it is mandated," the
Researchers found price variations ranging from nearly 100% for an abdominal ultrasound to over 300% for an MRI of a leg joint, according to the report, which was authored by
Other variations cited in the report include the price of a mammography of both breasts, which ranged from a high of
"These disparities portray a market dominated by certain systems that are able to maintain prices above competitive norms," the report said. "This is why provider price transparency is crucial information to which consumers, employers, benefits managers, and insurers should have ready access."
The report, released on Thursday, features a menu of recommendations, including putting one administrator in charge of price transparency at each hospital, stepped-up enforcement of federal pricing disclosure rules, and guidance from the federal government about ways to make pricing websites consumer-friendly. At the state level, the report suggests creating incentives to improve hospital compliance rates.
"Lack of healthcare price information may not be bothersome to some consumers because they have good healthcare insurance and therefore believe the price to be unimportant," the report said. "This is a mistake, however, because we all pay for rising healthcare costs directly or indirectly through higher insurance premiums. In many cases, however, the lack of price transparency does present problems because of health insurance with high deductibles or situations where consumers are underinsured or uninsured. The lack of price transparency has unfortunately become embedded in the American healthcare system."
While hospitals are coming up short on pricing disclosure for consumers, researchers found
"Only 2 in our sample of 19 do not make this data available in MRF style. While a number of national surveys have been critical of this requirement and the massive amount of data it produces in an unorganized fashion, there is an opportunity here for large purchasers of healthcare services to harness and utilize such data to their advantage," the report said.
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