More Organizations Pushing for Healthcare Transparency
A new study from George Washington University examines efforts to create healthcare price transparency.
- One of the biggest pushes in the healthcare landscape as of late is a larger focus on transparency. This can be seen with the Open Payment database that was released by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, which focuses on payments received by physicians and teaching hospitals and is just one example of how the health care industry is trying to pulling back the curtain.
Recently, George Washington University’s online master of public health program (MPH@GW) released a new report entitled “Illuminating Health Care Prices: organizations to Watch.” The resource offers in-depth profiles of 14 organizations that are helping achieve greater health care price transparency. This is happening in a number of ways including initiatives, research and tools. It is not all-encompassing, but rather a cross section of approaches that show some of ways that organizations are achieving or pushing for transparency.
In an interview with RevCycleIntelligence.com, the author and principal researcher of the report Emily Newhook, a Community Relations Manager for MPH@GW, spoke about why doing this study was so important and offered some of the major takeaways.
“Our primary goal here is to explain that ‘price transparency’ isn’t just a catchphrase or an issue that can be solved simply by releasing more data, but rather a nuanced, on-going process of advocacy, analysis and education. We knew that the best way to express the multidimensional nature of this issue was simply to speak with a variety of thought-leaders in the space who are all working towards price transparency from different angles.”
She added that the hope is that the report will serve as a resource for those who aren’t already engaged in the discussion about price transparency, and as a conversation-starter for those who are.
There are three main areas that are a major focus of tool. These including access and availability, big data and multifaceted consumer education.
Access and Availability
One of the hardest challenges to increased health care price transparency is simple obtaining the data from insurers and providers. Some health plans use gag clauses to prohibit sharing of information and many states do not have laws in place requiring health plans and health care providers to make information like this available to consumers.
Suzanne Delbanco of Catalyst for Payment Reform said in the study that in their latest report, 45 states failed when it comes to transparency laws and only two received a B.
Big Data
Even when data is shared, just having a mountain of information is not enough. There needs to be some contextualizing. Consumers want information specific to their situation.
“For us, transparency isn’t even the catch word anymore,” Robin Gelburd, President of FAIR Health, said in the study. “We see a huge difference between transparency and clarity…We try to not create a chaotic pile of data, but really contextualize the data and use language that is comprehensible that gives people a foundational understanding.”
David Newman, the Executive Director of the Health Care Cost Institute (HCCI), agreed with the idea of clarity and said that the hope is to create a data set large enough that others can derive insights that are actionable.
Multifaceted Consumer Education
Another major challenge is disseminating price information to consumers in a way that engages them and improves the quality of health. Consumers do not have a full understanding of how different prices can be with different providers.
“The fact that patients are not always well-positioned to understand the trade-offs and costs of every medical decisions is precisely why it is so important for the clinicians who decide what goes on the bill to know how they are impacting the patient’s wallet,” Dr. Neel Shah, the co-founder and Executive Director of Costs of Care, said in the report. “After all, if you bankrupt your patient—particularly with tests that are not needed—you are not helping them.”
