Hospital Price Transparency Initiative
Overview
As large employers enroll roughly half of the United States population into sponsored health plans, they are in a strong position to demand increased value from the healthcare system. However, they often lack the right cost information to show what they are really paying for healthcare services. A landmark study back in 2018 sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and conducted by the RAND Corporation revealed prices for hospitals services in the state of Indiana were far above what was considered normal.
The research sparked an annual series of studies that has grown to include claims data from dozens of self-funded employers, all-payer claims databases (APCDs) and several health plans. In September 2020, RAND 3.0, was launched that included 3,112 hospitals and 49 states – accounting for $33.8 billion in spending by private payers.
Many coalitions across the country are doing work in their own regions to bring the findings back to their members and find ways to best address the issues. An Action Brief outlined a number of key areas to being to focus their efforts
Our Next Steps
The National Alliance is focused on providing support to coalitions who are seeking to understand how hospitals operate in their selective regions. They have partnered with Quantros and NASHP providing specific data points in hospital quality and financial metrics.
The National Alliance will also be providing consultative services in the form of data analytics through a dashboard displaying hospitals financials, transparency data and other key metrics. If interested, please reach out to Juan Hidalgo.