How COVID-19 has increased the need for pricing transparency?

COVID-19 came too soon. 

We had the bad fortune of COVID-19 manifesting before January 1st 2021. On that celebrated day, new pricing transparency rules will go into effect for hospitals and insurers, making the healthcare world a better place.

We’ve needed price transparency for a while…

How many times have we come back from the hospital only to find a bill that’s 2000 times our anticipated cost? 

The absurd reality is that we put ourselves at the mercy of our healthcare system… when our system is merciless. 

Remember the “paperwork” that hospitals have us sign? This is where we agree to pay whatever they want no matter what?

That’s why we need pricing transparency. 

When it comes to healthcare, we don’t know how much we’re going to be paying, nor sometimes even why we’re paying for it. 

Unlike shopping for our other basic needs like food, drinks, clothing, and shelter… medical care is still shrouded in mystery. 

This is part of the reason why medical bills are still the number one cause of bankruptcies in the US. 

We’ve tried to solve our financial problems with healthcare so many times. Although we’ve proposed and implemented partial solutions to the problem before, none look to be as promising as pricing transparency.

“… right now our system probably deserves an F on transparency,” admits U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Alzar. Though sorrowful, he expressed his hopes that the new pricing transparency rules will “finally [put] the American patient in control.”

We’ve needed this control for a while. And it looks like we’ll really start taking control in January 2021.

We need price transparency now more than ever…

Many are finding themselves in a dire situation. 

This situation was best illustrated by Jessica Bielenberg, 

“So many people have lost their jobs, and then they lose their health insurance. They may not be able to pay even small medical bills or co-pays and still have rent or mortgage payments. If they get sick with coronavirus, or some other medical condition, this can be the perfect storm that puts people out on the street and increases the time they spend there.”

With recent hospital visits fresh in our minds, COVID-19 has reminded us of pricing transparency’s importance.

Pricing transparency is expected to force some hospital service prices to be more competitive, especially in areas with multiple hospitals in close proximity.

Transparency may also encourage mergers, consolidations, and partnerships so that stand-alone hospitals can improve their competitive position (dare we hope this will improve hospital software and health care efficiency?).

It will also streamline the adoption of cost-effective technologies (which becomes increasingly more important in a modern world of accelerating technological breakthroughs). 

COVID-19 has loudly called our attention to healthcare in general, and hopefully also to our increased need for pricing transparency. Although we may not see all the benefits of it right away, and although the transition to transparency may be bumpy, patients are looking forward to what lies in 2021.

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