An old adage says “a good plan today is better than an excellent plan tomorrow”, but why wait when an excellent plan is readily available today?

Hospital pricing transparency was in the news in late 2007. I made a presentation to a Pennsylvania chapter of the HFMA in early 2008 about the benefit of making pricing both transparent and defensible, explaining that defensible is the other side of the transparency coin.

Today most providers have fixed fee or capitated reimbursement payer contracts and a small percentage of value-based contracts. The transition to value is uneven because of real differences in hospital type, patient composition, payer mix, and financial sustainability.

This is an unprecedented time in health care given the significant number of ‘big picture’ industry changes and major disruptors, and that was before the COVID-19 pandemic.

CEO’s have said there is no going back to the ‘old normal’ because leadership and care teams proved their ability to make necessary substantive operational decisions quickly and effectively to meet the pandemic’s challenge.

No one knows at this point whether the federal mandate to publish pricing transparency will go into effect in January of 2021, yet there is no reason to wait.

Delivering pricing transparency can be a foundational anchor for a smart patient engagement program that provides useful information about pricing of popular services and identifies patient payment responsibility. It may include a pricing estimator.

Hospital marketing today relies heavily on the digital footprint. Website optimization ensures a favorable page ranking, effective social media feeds produce more testimonials and strengthen brand, and digital advertising itself reaches more consumers on their smart phones.

State grades for hospital patient outcomes and patient safety also help determine market capital and brand strength.

The combination of these two sets determines how effective your patient funnel will be. The need for a multi-layered patient acquisition strategy cannot be overstated in a business reboot.

How do we get there?

It starts with a comprehensive charge master reconfiguration to create rational and defensible pricing. This includes a detailed analysis of all charges and payer contract terms. We drill-down to the cost of services on several different levels and also generate a fresh analysis of the hospital’s market since no pricing change ever occurs in a vacuum. Then we use a consistent mark-up across service lines to:

• Protect the net revenue stream
• Reduce contractual allowances dramatically
• Right-size charges for the hospital’s market

In addition, pricing transparency requires providing useful pricing information for consumers which enables them to determine any out-of-pocket payment responsibility and the estimated cost of a procedure. This speaks directly to your patient process and hospital culture, making it a smart patient engagement tool and an effective patient acquisition strategy.

Our process is straightforward, streamlined, and strategic. Why wait when an excellent plan to deliver greater pricing transparency is already here.

See what ‘Q’ can do for you!

Jonathan