Wall Street Journal, New York Daily News and Boston Globe Run PRA Letters on Price Transparency
Recently, the Wall Street Journal, New York Daily News, and Boston Globe ran PRA letters on healthcare price transparency. Read these perspectives below:
First, Know the Price. Then, Watch it Fall
Further socializing America’s runaway healthcare costs is not the solution (“Making Health Insurance Work for Consumers,” Letters, Nov. 11). Transferring costs from patients to taxpayers doesn’t address the underlying reason the country’s healthcare costs are nearly twice the developed-world average, as a share of GDP. Under the price-opaque status quo, consumers generally have no idea what their costs will be until bills arrive in the mail. This obfuscating and predatory pricing system facilitates widespread inefficiency and overcharging.
Price transparency is urgently needed to empower consumers to identify the best care at the lowest price. Unleashed price data, including all negotiated rates, allow patients to avoid price-gouging providers and insurers and shop for nonemergency healthcare. Upfront prices arm patients with discretion, ushering in a competitive marketplace that eliminates waste and inflationary middlemen, putting downward pressure on prices—just like in every other sector of the economy.
Cynthia A. Fisher
PatientRightsAdvocate.org
Newton, Mass.
Choose Revolution
Newton, Mass.: Re “N.Y. must get hospital costs under control” (op-ed, Dec. 5): Employers and unions in New York and across the country can follow Service Employees International Union, Local 32BJ’s lead and substantially save on their health care costs by analyzing their health plan claims data and identifying and avoiding price gouging providers. They can choose quality, less expensive alternatives and share the savings with their employees and members in the form of higher pay and lower premiums. Numerous innovative employers and unions have saved 30-50% on their healthcare costs by shopping for the best quality care at the lowest possible prices. By treating their health care costs like any other part of their supply chain, consumers can lead a healthcare revolution through their choices. Robust federal enforcement of hospital and health insurance price transparency rules will allow all consumers to easily identify actual prices of care and coverage upfront and take control of their health and wealth.
Cynthia A. Fisher
Under Opaque US System, Almost Every Medical Bill Is A Surprise
The dispute between health insurers and providers over the Biden administration’s surprise-billing rule is secondary to the order’s much-needed patient protection from so-called balance bills, which financially devastate millions of Americans (“Congress moved to protect Americans from surprise medical bills, but some lawmakers worry the coming rule favors insurers,” BostonGlobe.com, Nov. 26). Despite protests from doctor and provider groups, applying the median in-network rate in billing disputes is a simple remedy to the messy, behind-the-scenes health care billing game.
However, under America’s opaque health care system, almost every bill is still a surprise. Complete, systemwide health care price transparency can overcome this surprise billing scourge and dramatically reduce crushing health care costs by allowing patients to shop for the best care at the best prices. When actual prices are posted upfront, health care consumers can finally know what they owe before care, including the in-network, out-of-network, and discounted cash prices.
All patients deserve the right to know exact, binding prices upfront. Federal law already requires hospitals to post their real prices. Next July, a health insurance price transparency rule takes effect, arming patients with actual prices wherever they get care. Robust enforcement of these price transparency measures can prevent overcharging, provide consumers with immediate recourse if their bills don't match the quoted price, hold hospitals and health insurers accountable, and actually end surprise bills.
Cynthia A. Fisher
Founder & Chair
PatientRightsAdvocate.org