What are some common sense strategies to provide greater pricing transparency?

• Do a thorough analysis of all charges and payer data
• Determine which service lines are the most profitable
• Determine which service lines have the strongest brand and which ones are emerging as important revenue-generators
• Drill down to the self-pay patient subset by service line, dollar volume, hospital financing, bad debt, and charitable care
• Factor-in physician recruiting by service line and the efficacy of physician on-boarding to budget-modeling
• Complete a market analysis of competitor hospitals
• Ensure the integrity of the existing net revenue stream by reducing contractual allowances strategically
• Implement a new marketing strategy that starts with branding because brand still is the most effective differentiator in any market
• Create an online portal for pricing data based on chargemaster pricing after reconfiguring the chargemaster

It is likely the 2019 Medicare mandate to publish insurer reimbursement data for 300 services will be struck down by the Courts.

Reconfiguring the chargemaster is fundamental to greater pricing transparency because it makes charges more rational by improving the cost-to-charge ratio (the RCC).

We do each of these.

Jonathan Gehris