How to Increase Transparency?
The National Governor’s Association asked the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions to assess ongoing efforts to support price transparency in the US healthcare system. The overwhelming belief noted from interviews was that adoption of price transparency would eventually occur.
The study conducted by Deloitte evaluated views of key stakeholders involved in the transparency debate: healthcare providers, insurers, employers offering health plans, and policymakers. Moreover, the effort considered how stakeholders and states, in particular, can facilitate increased transparency.
States have key strengths which enable them to motivate activities to increase transparency. Already some are credited with efforts to increase price transparency; particularly Massachusetts, Florida, California, and Pennsylvania.
The Deloitte study documented a number of concerns about price transparency: the potential inability of consumers to utilize price transparency effectively, procuring cooperation from stakeholders to increase transparency, and challenges determining costs in the absence of current pricing standards. See the full report.
Related stories:
- Texas Unveils Transparency Initiative
- Insurers Question Hospital Pricing
- CMS Makes Hospital Payment Information Available
- ECRI Sues Guidant to Keep Publishing Prices
- Medicare Rates to Become Transparent
April 3, 2007 Related topics: Legal & legislative, Trends, Quality, Safety, Errors