HFMA wants pricing simplified
WESTCHESTER, IL – It’s time for healthcare organizations to simplify pricing approaches to build public trust and to take mistrust out of the contracting process.
In releasing the latest report on its patient-friendly billing initiative, the Healthcare Financial Management Association is calling for action in reconstructing the way healthcare is priced.
HFMA is releasing and disseminating the report, and it will be seeking support from other healthcare organizations. One positive nod is coming from the American Hospital Association, which is supporting HFMA’s call for rational pricing, said Richard L. Clarke, HFMA’s president and CEO.
Making pricing clearer is growing in importance as consumers take on higher deductibles and play a larger role in directing their own care, Clarke said. Because of the structure of the current reimbursement system, healthcare charges and what organizations expect to get paid are widely disparate.
“We’ve urged members to look at their pricing systems, to get them to be more rational,” Clarke said.
“Issues of pricing, payment and financing are closely intertwined,” the report said. Because of the complex way in which healthcare payment and service pricing has evolved, “the resultant pricing of services is almost impossible for the general public to understand, inhibiting transparency, price comparisons and trust in healthcare institutions.”
HFMA’s report outlines a roadmap to enable healthcare organizations to take steps to improve pricing. Key strategies include providing meaningful, timely and relevant information, simplifying, making prices defensible, being fair to all consumers, particularly self-pay patients who don’t benefit from discounted prices, and enabling the comparability of price and quality.
Pricing needs to be easy and equitable to administer, provide equity for providers, improve efficiency and protect providers that offer a disproportionate share of charity care or important but unprofitable services, it added.
While it’s important for providers to make prices rational, Clarke said HFMA plans to work with major payers to revise contracts with providers that change the way they calculate prices.
