Spokane-area hospitals post prices online under federal directive criticized as imperfect
The goal, according to the leader of the
Those speaking on behalf of the region's hospitals, insurers and patients say there are other ways to get more accurate information about how much health care is going to cost, even if the intent behind the effort is noble.
"We think it's a step in the right direction, but there's certainly a long way to go before this information is useful to patients," said
"You may need extra blood, extra antibiotics. Maybe something is more complex than normal, or you have another health condition that requires extra care," Edwards said.
"Listing hospital charges may help patients understand what the costs might be for certain health care services, but the information patients and consumers want most is the amount they will actually be billed or asked to pay," said
Comparison shopping is difficult, if not impossible, for patients because the hospitals aren't required under federal rules to submit their prices in any specific format. The rule also doesn't require health care providers to post charges in a specific location on their website. The rule only requires that the prices be submitted as a spreadsheet, but each health care provider can individually determine what descriptions they'll use and how the prices will be submitted.
That keeps users from easily comparing one provider's costs to another. Consider insulin, the life-saving drug for diabetics: MultiCare's list of charges includes two options for the drug, while
And even those numbers aren't actually what a patient should expect to pay, because most are on the hook for out-of-pocket costs based on rates that are negotiated through insurers. Those that aren't insured may also be eligible for free charity care or other discounts off what is called the "gross charge," the number that hospitals are required to post under the new rule.
"I think it's fine to have it available," said
More relevant pricing tools exist, and they've been initiated at the state level, said
"I think the purpose of the CMS rule is to catch up with what a lot of states have done," Malte said. The
A state law passed in 2014 also required the state's
Major insurance providers in the area haven't seen an influx of additional calls and aren't changing their practices when it comes to informing their customers about prices for procedures. Representatives of both
"Price transparency is a really complex issue that everyone's grappling with," said
Even if the prices that are posted don't accurately reflect what a patient will pay, and are difficult to find and decipher, their publication might push health care providers, patients and insurers to begin discussing transparency in pricing more openly, said
"The utility right now may not be there, but they're going to get a lot of feedback on it," Levy said. "That's going to push us to the next step."
The
"I think it says, here's a minimum standard," he said. "And there's more coming."
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