They're out there...if you can only find them!
In response to the newly passed Hospital Prices legislation, hospitals have begun publishing their "Chargemaster" or cash prices, including 70 CMS (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services) mandated procedures such as lower back X-ray, leg joint MRI, abdominal ultrasound, and other services deemed most essential for public awareness of prices.
These price lists must be "machine-readable" meaning they can be in very hard-to-read computer file format, or at best, in lengthy Microsoft Excel worksheets laden with nearly inscrutable acronyms and abbreviations. Not to mention the price lists are often buried multitudes of clicks away from the hospitals' front-door web pages.
Not to worry—many web-based information services, journals, and healthcare newsletters are already hard at work uncovering and deciphering the buried hieroglyphics. As for DOC$, we have begun the task of turning this labyrinth of disparate data into easily readable, helpful price-comparison tools so our users can find the best values on the medical expense items that have the biggest impact on family budgets.
To that end, we will:
• Show top hospital procedure prices in comparative "grid" format by local area
• Find prices from competing local clinics and independent Providers that show high value
• Allow our users to enter THEIR OWN billed prices to achieve REAL Price Transparency in Healthcare
• Show companies and workers—through their HR/Benefits coordinators—how to use our tools to save $$$...majorly big $$$
As we've previously blogged, the Memphis, TN metro area is our test/beta market for our proof-of-concept. On our comparative page, linked here, there are some eye-popping initial comparisons. Just to point out one example: a (very common) knee joint-MRI-without contrast (the industry or 'CPT' code for this is 73721), is priced at $9,458.00 at one local hospital, vs. $450.00 at a nearby imaging center. Your specialist will be happy to read the disk from EITHER of these Providers.
To be clear, NOBODY expects the local hospital to try to collect $9500 with a straight face. But we've got to start somewhere, don't we? So we're starting with the prices they have published.
What we really want is for 1) our users on this site to post their billed charges for all the top out-of-pocket "subject to deductible" medical expenses, and 2) Providers like the above-mentioned imaging clinic to report their HIGHLY COMPETITIVE prices so consumers can find the highest-value Healthcare services. Now we're gettin' somewhere!
Know the Cost of Healthcare BEFORE You Go In!