We're championing the rise of the new trend known as "Healthcare Price Transparency" at DOC$. In fact, we are designed to be everyone's repository for all the new helpful information to come as a result of this revolution. One-stop-shopping for all things medical cost-related!

Conveniently, a sleepy little corner of the medical industry known as "Telehealth" has just been awakened and transformed into a new giant of healthcare trends—all due to the social distancing restrictions necessitated by the Covid-19 experience. Pam Hoffman, telehealth Medical Director at Yale New Haven Health Services, tells Healthcare IT News' Mallory Hackett that telehealth calls in her network have increased from "...about 20-30 per day to now 2-3,000 visits per day." — Wow:  Growth Spurt!

This presents a valuable opportunity for consumers to take back more control of their healthcare experience:  "Give me an online form to fill out..."; "Here's my insurance card [via text, email, or phone-cam]..."; and of course, most vital of all opportunities, "Can you tell me what this will cost?"

We've referred to the excellent work done by Kaiser Health News' (KHN) Elisabeth Rosenthal. Her book An American Sickness (Amazon link provided) chronicles the mal-transformation of the medical economy over the past few decades, and provides an even better roadmap of where WE can go to "take it back."  Among her critical suggestions on "What You can do now..." include:

•  Ask for all-inclusive prices for outpatient procedures and surgeries

•  Give "qualified" consent to allow ONLY in-network Providers (i.e.; anesthesiologist, radiologist, etc.)

•  Ask for a list of Providers for tests and imaging

Hopefully, everyone reading this—and all those we invite you to share it with—caught that the operative word above is WE. Cost openness can be legislated and mandated. But there is only one way Healthcare Price Transparency is going to work for families, employers, and groups like those with Health Savings Accounts (HSAs). That way forward is for us all to share medical cost information with each other.

This can be easily done. When you receive a bill, and your insurance company sends your Explanation of Benefits (EOB), there is important information about 1) the Provider, 2) the Procedure they're billing you for, and 3) Price information on what they Charged, any Discounts, and your insurance carrier's Approved amount. This can all be reported through DOC$ by creating an account. You can do so anonymously by creating a Username.

Then, once a few thousands of us—in any american city—have entered in their reports, we'll all have a searchable database with comparative information to help in finding the best-value Providers.

Know the Cost of Healthcare BEFORE You Go In!