Dive Brief:
- The Oregon Association of Hospitals and Health Systems has announced a price transparency initiative that aims to provide healthcare consumers with pricing details in advance of their visit to a hospital for a procedure.
- The initiative involves three elements, one of which involves working hand-in-hand with payers through the Oregon Health Leadership Council, to help insured patients learn what out-of-pocket expenses they will be responsible for paying.
- The other elements of the initiative include legislation to implement a state-run website that displays median prices for procedures at hospitals, and tools to help hospitals provide good-faith estimates to their self-pay and out-of-network consumers.
Dive Insight:
The Oregon Health Leadership Council says it is on board with leading insurers' participation in the initiative. The organization "is committed to helping patients understand healthcare pricing, and is eager to work with our members to achieve that goal," Greg Van Pelt, president of the OHLC, told KTVZ.
"We know that people want health care providers and insurers to work together to ensure a patient-friendly experience. This is precisely what we intend to do," Van Pelt says.
Insurers should also note that the proposed legislation calling for a state-run website specifies that it would utilize state-collected information from its existing All Payer All Claims database, in order to provide median prices for common hospital procedures.