Will 2020 be a year of innovation, new cures, and enhanced health care delivery that improves patient outcomes while bending the cost curve?
The feds have mandated all hospital providers post what they will accept as payment-in-full for a select set of services. This appears to pierce the privacy clause of contract law, yet the feds will argue they have the right to incite more competition among hospitals as they already do via the Medicare program.
SCOTUS likely will decide the legality of the feds’ action, however most senior leaders are already working on several interim initiatives to enhance pricing transparency.
What can you do to facilitate more effective patient engagement consistent with greater transparency?
- Review the patient registration process to ensure it shouts customer-friendly
- Discuss patient payment responsibility up-front
- Create a customer-friendly cost estimator tool for patient deductibles on your website
- Include information for financing options if available
- Post FAQ’s about patient registration and other useful information on the hospital website
The debate about how to enhance transparency has triggered a renewed discussion about the hospital charge master. Some still insist the charge master is obsolete while others point to the resurgence of cost accounting as proof the charge master will remain an important part of our health care system.
There are three things we will do if you choose to post pricing from your charge master on the website:
1) Analyze current charge and payer data to confirm key revenue drivers that need to be preserved and allowances that can be reduced substantially
2) Complete a deeper dive into historical data to confirm trends and key relationships by service line
3) Use the results of No.’s 1 and 2 to reconfigure the charge master
We use the power of statistical analysis and predictive analytics to accomplish this. Our straightforward process will begin to return the charge master to its rightful role as a revenue-generator by improving the important cost-to-charge ratio.
Completing a strategic charge master reconfiguration is a necessary step in providing greater pricing transparency, plus it will enhance the effectiveness of your patient engagement program.
See what ‘Q’ can do for you?