The great healthcare transparency movement?
Physician Practice Insider, June 16, 2015
The ability of consumers to shop for healthcare services based on price and quality won't take hold until innovative providers take some risk and a dose of faith.
Why can't it be easy to shop for healthcare services? All too often, it is a Kafkaesque experience. There's no single place to go.
As a patient, you can't easily compare prices for services as you would when buying a TV. You can call your insurer—which really sets the prices—and you might make some headway, only to then run into brick walls. When you're pointed back to your physician's office for a code in order to continue discussions with the insurer regarding your obligation for, say, a colonoscopy, you'll circle back into discussions about codes and preventive and elective care. You might get it resolved before your scheduled procedure. You might not. For most patients, that is the world of healthcare billing.
All this despite the fact that each of the three key players in the healthcare transaction—the payers, providers, and employers/patients—agrees that patients should be able to receive accurate price estimates for healthcare services prior to consuming them. But bringing that vision to reality is considerably more complicated than it may seem.
Read the full story by Philip Betbeze in HealthLeaders Magazine.
Read the full story by Philip Betbeze in HealthLeaders Magazine.
Related Products
-
Physician Practice Perspective
Physician Practice Perspective subscribers can find the archive of issues on the Part B News website. Find more information...
-
Medical Environment Update
A subscription to Medical Environment Update pays for itself by saving you time sorting through complex regulations and...
-
HealthLeaders Media Physician Leaders
HealthLeaders Media Physician Leaders offers commentaries that focus on the hottest issues for doctors as well as concise...
-
Medical Environment Update - Electronic and Print, 1 year
A subscription to Medical Environment Update pays for itself by saving you time sorting through complex regulations and...
-
Medical Environment Update - Electronic, 1 year
A subscription to Medical Environment Update pays for itself by saving you time sorting through complex regulations and...
Most Popular
- Articles
-
- CMS seeks comment on quality measures
- Don't forget the three checks in medication administration
- Note similarities and differences between HCPCS, CPT® codes
- Q&A: Primary, principal, and secondary diagnoses
- Practice the six rights of medication administration
- What does case-mix index mean to you?
- Complications from immobility by body system
- OB services: Coding inside and outside of the package
- Prevent dehydration with nursing interventions
- Nursing responsibilities for managing pain
- E-mailed
-
- What are some ways to effectively communicate research findings to the rest of my facility so I can make needed changes in our clinical practice?
- Q/A: Billing telemetry daily monitoring
- Q&A: Sepsis as a primary diagnosis
- Note from the instructor: Billing Outpatient Laboratory Services - TOB 131 vs. TOB 141
- Learn how to read an OP report
- Inpatient-only procedures: Accuracy helps avoid denials, ensure compliance
- Don't forget the three checks in medication administration
- Coding, billing, and documentation tips for teaching physicians, interns, residents, and students
- Clinical Corner: Revisiting respiratory failure
- Clear up confusion surrounding observation services
- Searched
