Dive Brief:
- Calling a doctor's office to get the price of a test or office visit isn't as easy as some might think.
- A new study by the Pioneer Institute, a research group out of Boston, shows that this is true even in Massachusetts, where hospitals and doctors are required by law to provide patients with the price of tests, exams or treatments within 48 hours of a request.
- In some cases, patients need to know the cost in advance because they have to pay out-of-pocket expenses if they haven't met their insurance deductibles.
Dive Insight:
Last month, the Pioneer Institute called the medical offices of 96 Massachusetts dentists, ophthalmologists, dermatologists and gastroenterologists in an attempt to get prices for five basic services. “Sometimes people were downright rude,” Barbara Anthony, a senior fellow in health care at the Pioneer Institute told Kaiser Health News. “Other times, staff said they weren’t allowed to give price information over the phone.”
Part of the problem is that practices that use outside billing offices may not be aware of the prices. Physicians also negotiate different prices with different insurers.
Dr. Dennis Dimitri, president of the Massachusetts Medical Society, told Kaiser Health News that despite these difficulties, there is value in being able to give patients prices when they ask for them. “We don’t want patients to not get the care they need because they’re afraid it’s too expensive,” Dimitri said, but “it’s reasonable for patients to understand the cost of their own care and ask, ‘Is this something that is really necessary? Is there a way to do this that will still be of good quality but not as expensive?’ ”
Dimitri said that having that conversation with patients “will lead to better control of the cost of care in the future.”