NJ.com features op-ed co-authored by Cynthia Fisher calling for the need for price transparency in New Jersey

Cynthia Fisher, PatientRightsAdvocate.org founder and chairman, joined Kevin Lyons, the director of Member Benefits at the New Jersey State Policemen’s Benevolent Association, and Christin Deacon, the former director of Health Benefits Operations and Policy and Planning for New Jersey, on an op-ed calling for the need for price transparency in New Jersey after the State Health Benefits Commission voted to raise health premiums for hundreds of thousands of state and local workers by approximately 20%.

In their op-ed, the group states:

“How can health premiums rise approximately 2.5 times the current historic inflation rate? Because healthcare prices are hidden from consumers, allowing hospitals and health insurers to overcharge without consequences. Workers generally have no idea what they’ll pay for healthcare until after they receive bills in the mail or see their premiums skyrocket. This opaque dynamic is like buying a car and not knowing what your payments will be until six months later.

State workers have their salaries and pensions posted publicly online. Yet healthcare prices aren’t similarly transparent despite recent federal rules requiring hospitals and health insurers to publish their actual negotiated rates. Price information requests to the State Health Benefits Plan Design Committee over the last 10 years have been met with delays, refusals and redactions.”

Click here to read the full op-ed on NJ.com