Breaking Down RCM and its Purpose
November 9, 2020How Will Pricing Transparency Affect Healthcare?
December 1, 2020What is Price Transparency?
Price Transparency is the ability of having all the bid and ask prices along with the quantities being transparent to patients. The healthcare pricing transparency rule has been enforced for the betterment of people. It has been applied with the goal to reduce the nation wide overall healthcare costs.
Why is Price Transparency important?
Staying updated with the cost of healthcare prices for patients is very important. This will give a competitive edge to each and every healthcare organization. Healthcare pricing transparency is important for several reasons. Firstly, the public has the right to know the current situation of healthcare costs of the services being performed. As of now, patients have no idea what each hospital charges for each individual service. This is important as the patient will now understand the cost of services for each individual healthcare organization. Which will allow them to compare and then choose where they receive care.
Compliance with Price Transparency
Complying with price transparency is significant for every healthcare organization. This goes especially for the hospitals as there is barely any information available on their pricing. Therefore, how they go about doing so is quite important. Firstly, hospitals have to publish their pricing structure on the internet. This would include their gross charges and the discount cash prices. Next, their negotiated charges and the arguable range will also have to be mentioned. Thirdly, their locations for inpatient and outpatient arrangements will have to be displayed. It is important to mention, they will also have to disclose a list of service bundles that are shoppable. Furthermore, the hospitals will have to show the prices for all primary and ancillary services as well.
Benefits of Price Transparency Compliance
The new rules are enhancing digitization in the healthcare sector as well. They are helping healthcare services work under an established framework. This framework is helping the care-givers and patients greatly. Also, these rules are helping mitigate the financial risk of both entities substantially. As a result, it is promoting patient loyalty for the long term. Hospitals are now able to drive acquisition of patients to their benefit as well. In the end, pricing transparency is giving the patients efficient healthcare. Not to mention, it is adding authenticity to the hospitals’ image.
Consequences of Non-Compliance
In case a hospital is not complying with price transparency, it has to face significant consequences. To start, paying penalties will become inevitable and, along with this, the public shaming will bring the hospital’s reputation down greatly. Moreover, the loss of customers in this competitive sector will be the toughest to recover from. As a result, a hospital who is not observing compliance will face long term barriers in survival and growth. In the worst case scenario it is highly likely for a hospital to become shut down completely.
Final Word
A business needs to comply with every rule that the government imposes. Price transparency is one important rule for healthcare organizations. Abiding by this rule will allow healthcare organizations to protect their reputation and increase revenue. However, not following this rule can result in dire situations. Surely, there is no healthcare organization that wants to face such consequences.
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