New Managed Care Findings from Tufts University Reported (Cost Transparency In Otolaryngology: Outpatient Procedures Cost Information At New England Hospitals): Managed Care

Health Policy and Law Daily

2024 NOV 06 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Health Policy and Law Daily -- Investigators discuss new findings in Managed Care. According to news reporting originating in Boston, Massachusetts, by NewsRx journalists, research stated, “Healthcare costs have dramatically increased, resulting in barriers to care for many Americans. To address this, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services implemented a price transparency mandate, requiring hospitals to provide cost-estimate tools.”

The news reporters obtained a quote from the research from Tufts University, “This study evaluates the accessibility and usability of these tools for common otolaryngology outpatient procedures. Cost transparency was investigated using cost-estimate tools from websites of the seven New England hospitals ranked on the US News top 50 list. Ten common current procedural terminology codes were used to collect data on availability of cost information, cost comparison, and ease-of-use by six investigators acting as ‘patients’ for each hospital and procedure. All investigated hospitals had cost-estimate tools, with a 35.7 % mean success rate of generating an estimate. The mean times to cost-estimate tools and generated estimates were 35.69 and 34.15 s, respectively. Pre-insurance costs varied by hospital and procedure; creation of eardrum had the largest range. Seven out of ten procedures resulted in lower post-insurance costs. The mean ease-of-use rating was 5.76 out of ten. All hospitals complied with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services price transparency policy. The information available is sparse, difficult to access, and frequently lacks specific estimates for common otolaryngology procedures.”

According to the news reporters, the research concluded: “Although hospitals are following new Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services mandates, the estimators currently in existence are ineffective tools for financial decision-making.”

This research has been peer-reviewed.

For more information on this research see: Cost Transparency In Otolaryngology: Outpatient Procedures Cost Information At New England Hospitals. American Journal of Otolaryngology, 2024;45(6). American Journal of Otolaryngology can be contacted at: W B Saunders Co-elsevier Inc, 1600 John F Kennedy Boulevard, Ste 1800, Philadelphia, PA 19103-2899, USA. (Elsevier - www.elsevier.com; American Journal of Otolaryngology - http://www.journals.elsevier.com/american-journal-of-otolaryngology/)

Our news correspondents report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Samuel Ding, Tufts University, School of Medicine, 145 Harrison Ave, Boston, MA 02111, United States. Additional authors for this research include Alec Chang, Monica O’Brien, Grace Materne, Julianna Mastropierro, Timothy Mikulski, Kathryn Y. Noonan, David O’Neil Danis and Emily Gall.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amjoto.2024.104413. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.