3+ clicks needed to find online price lists of largest hospitals, Quartz says

The websites of 75 percent of the nation's 115 biggest hospitals required three or more clicks to find their chargemaster, according to an analysis by Quartz.

Five things to know:

1. As of Jan. 1, hospitals are required to post their standard charges online under a CMS price transparency rule. They must present the information in a machine-readable format that can be easily imported into a computer system and update the information at least annually. On Jan. 10, CMS Administrator Seema Verma acknowledged that the information hospitals are posting "isn't patient-specific," but she said the federal government still believes the requirement "is an important first step."

2. For its analysis, Quartz surveyed the websites of 115 of the largest U.S. hospitals, which receive 20 percent of all Medicare and Medicaid hospital funding. The reporters said "after spending an inordinate amount of time clicking through pages," they found 105 hospitals' lists online.

3. "Even among those hospitals that are technically compliant with the new rule, the vast majority don't make it especially easy for the average person to find their pricing information. We found that most price lists are buried under many sub-menus or at the very bottom of a long page scroll," the reporters said.

4. For six hospitals the reporters had trouble finding price lists for, they were able to track them down through a Google search pairing the name of each hospital with phrases like "price list" or "chargemaster."

5. Even for hospitals whose online lists were more accessible, some required hundreds of clicks to find a particular item, according to the publication. For example, Louisville, Ky.-based Norton Hospital's 1,560-page price list had three separate pages for "treatment rooms." At least five hospitals also requested a user's email and name to access the data.

"In many instances, the price list is published on illogical pages. Most hospital sites have a 'billing' section, but, for example, the Methodist Hospital in San Antonio decided to put its standard rates on the legal page while [Indianapolis-based] Indiana University Health has placed it under the Frequently Asked Questions section of its website. Baptist Hospital in Miami published their chargemaster as fine print," according to Quartz.

For the full Quartz report, click here.

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