How to Improve Price Transparency in the Healthcare System
Effective service delivery is possible through price transparency It is the only way to improve patients experience when they seek treatment in healthcare facilities. Majority of patients will be more than willing to pay as long as they get informed earlier on the amount expexted This will lead to reduction of the amount that remains uncompensated Each healthcare facility needs to inform patients on what the amount owed and the duration needed to make payment. This way patients can decide on what services to seek
There is a lot of effort from insurance companies and healthcare providers to improve price transparency. Transparency increases the rate of success in providing quality services The cost of care can be reduced by providing sufficient information regarding pricing. There has been a push for improvement on price transparency for many years Many people are left in the dark when they seek in-patient care as they don’t know how much they will get charged. Transparency will enable consumers to know which healthcare system to choose and give physicians an opportunity to make cost conscious decisions
The health care system cannot be functional if people cannot compare the
pricing with other services as they don’t know the exact value of the purchase However, things are changing with the pressure being put on insurers, drug makers and healthcare providers to offer a price and deliver quality drugs There is rising demand for patients to shop for healthcare services as healthcare spending is higher than the cost of inflation. There are payment plans that need healthcare providers to provide a cost before conducting tests
If providers don’t know the standard price of treatment, it can be difficult to come up with an accurate figure. The cost of treatment varies in thousands of dollars in healthcare facilities that are in the same neighborhood let alone different countries It is not uncommon for hospital to charge more than what is provided by insurance companies. This is why price transparency is important to avoid running into unwanted cost that could be easily avoided
Price transparency will give patients an opportunity to choose healthcare facilities that they can afford It comes as no surprise that there are physicians who don’t know the standard cost of the services they provide
It is even worse when patients don’t have knowledge of how much their insurance cover is providing If a patient goes for treatment and it leads to discovery of another condition, the estimates may differ greatly. This means that there needs to be coordination between health planners and providers to get an estimate on the prices Major healthcare plan use a cost estimator tool to give patients a cost estimate.