Chargemasters: Keeping your numbers transparent
Health Care Auditing Strategies, December 1, 2006
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Chargemasters: Keeping your numbers transparent
A growing number of organizations-ranging from employers to consumer groups-want to see rising costs in healthcare stabilize, if not abate. One way to do this, they figure, is to establish pricing transparency, or to have hospitals publish their sets of retail prices. Several states, including North Carolina and California, already require hospitals to submit their chargemasters, which the states will keep on record. Then, for a small fee, anyone can obtain a copy of a chargemaster to review a hospital's pricing.
Pricing items in the chargemaster is largely a hospital-specific decision. Your hospital is responsible for developing a sound policy and following it without violating the Medicare charging rule. "The hospital chargemaster has become a big issue, particularly because of the increased number of people who are uninsured, self-insured, or self-pay," said Duane C. Abbey, president of Abbey & Abbey Consultants, a healthcare consulting firm in Ames, IA.
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