Price transparency in healtchare reform

by E.D. Kain on December 21, 2009

From page 12 of the Senate HCR bill:

Each hospital operating within the United States shall for each year establish (and update) and make public (in accordance with guidelines developed by the Secretary) a list of the hospital’s standard charges for items and services provided by the hospital, including for diagnosis-related groups.

E.D. Kain is a blogger and freelance writer. Currently he serves as Editor-in-Chief of The League of Ordinary Gentlemen and writes a tech blog at Forbes. Visit his politics blog here. He can be found occasionally composing 140 character cultural analysis on Twitter. His writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The National Review, The Washington Examiner, and the now-defunct True/Slant. You can also contact him via email.

{ 3 comments }

1 Jaybird December 21, 2009 at 12:38 pm

Wonderful. I’d also appreciate a list of reasons someone might pay appreciably (5%?) more or less than that particular price if it comes out that there is an appreciable (5%?) amount of people who end up paying more or less than that.

2 Scott December 22, 2009 at 8:34 am

Insurance companies can get better prices b/c they bring more customers to the hospital, i.e. a volume discount. Many times a mark up in costs is due to the fact that a hospital has to make up for the the fact the Medicaid and Medicare don’t reimburse a hospital the full value of a procedure, so the hospital has to increase the price of another good or service. The article below is a god example.

http://www.tallahassee.com/article/20091221/CAPITOLNEWS/912210311

3 RTod December 22, 2009 at 8:38 am

Very true. Similarly, smaller carriers often have to make up the difference that is lost to a provider from a negotiation with a larger carrier.

Comments on this entry are closed.