The CMS final rule aims to make hospital-pricing information readily available to patients to compare costs and make more informed healthcare decisions. To aid with this, hospitals in the U.S. are required to post a machine-readable file with the negotiated rates for all items and services and display the prices of 300 shoppable services in a consumer-friendly format.
Research released April 9 by the Peterson-Kaiser Family Foundation Health System Tracker made it clear there’s room for vast improvement for providers to make their pricing information more consumer-friendly.
Below are seven challenges in comparing prices for common services across hospitals, according to the study:
- Not all hospitals measure price the same way. Some use estimates, some use averages, and some use single established rates.
- Price information provided in machine-readable files often has missing information, failing to provide all services for all payers and rates.
- Most hospitals don’t present the price differences for inpatient and outpatient care.
- It’s often unclear whether the estimated price includes the professional fee.
- Price estimates for the same service often differ depending on whether a consumer uses the hospital’s price transparency tool or its machine-readable file.
- Hospitals often make their price information difficult to access or search for.
- Price estimates can change over a short time.
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