Hospital Transparency

Hospital Price Transparency Initiative

Overview

Hospital costs are one of the fastest-growing expenditures in the US economy with employers and employees paying the highest prices in the world. Costs have been further exacerbated by market consolidation where health systems increasingly operate with little or no competition or market constraints. This has allowed indefensible hospital pricing and minimal constraint on growth, further "investment" in market consolidation, and bloated overhead costs.

Our Next Steps

We are entering a new era of transparency and the curtain of secrecy is lifting. While the battle to curb healthcare costs has been going on for decades, it wasn't until recently that employers and other purchasers had access to the data to truly understand just how non-responsive the system has been. Sage Transparency is helping synthesize multiple sources of data to bring greater focus to the current state of hospital prices in the commercial market.

Playbook – Beyond Hospital Transparency Getting to Fair Price

The National Alliance released a playbook for employers/purchasers and regional business coalitions, "Beyond Hospital Transparency: Getting to Fair Price." Featuring Sage Transparency, this playbook will help purchasers navigate the data; understand rights and responsibilities as a plan sponsor fiduciary; determine what a fair price is for hospital services in specific marketplaces; and offer guidance about options to achieve fair pricing.

Featured Resources

Sage Dashboard

Sage Transparency hospital value dashboard

Access Resource
Understanding Hosptial costs

NASHP Interactive Hospital Cost Tool

Access Resource

Achieving Value in Mental Health Support

RAND 4.0 Transparency Findings

Access Resource

Featured Coalitions in Action

Houston Business Health CoalitionThe RAND Hospital Price Transparency Report, NASHP Hospital Cost Tool and Sage Transparency dashboard has galvanized Houston employers. Purchasers are entering a new age of transparency and it’s clear from these tools that pricing is not directly correlated with quality, but rather on what the market will bear. HBCH is working to make available resources to enable employers and health plans to negotiate contracts to select health systems that offer the best value – the highest quality at the lowest costs and will soon post the results for all Houston area hospitals on its website for easy public access. HBCH and its members are also working to demand transparency and change policies in the Texas Legislature to eliminate anti-competitive language between hospitals and health plans. Learn more.
Employers' Forum of Indiana logoEmployers’ Forum of Indiana has developed a first-of-its-kind tool that brings together public and proprietary data on hospital pricing and quality. The Sage Transparency hospital value dashboard gives users access to price and quality data for thousands of hospitals across the United States—and it’s free! Sage Transparency is an interactive, customizable dashboard which displays data from a variety of sources in an easy-to-understand way.  Learn more.





Our Value Agenda:

Uniting and raising our voices together

  • Support employers to become more informed healthcare decision-makers
  • Develop an aligned strategy that is capable of materially increasing value from the healthcare system
  • Provide employer-specific private reports
  • Learn strategies that will gradually rein in unreasonably high prices, especially for hospital outpatient services
  • Work with other employers and business coalitions across the country to advocate for changes in how contracts are developed and negotiated
  • Over the longer term, employers can support efforts to promote competition in health care markets by opposing consolidation among existing providers and promoting entry of new, lower-priced providers
“Sage Transparency brings together multiple sources of high-quality data on hospital price, cost and quality of care. In the past, if you wanted to see how one local hospital group performed relative to another it would take hours poring through spreadsheets -- not to mention subscription costs paid to data providers -- to track down all the relevant information. Sage Transparency is a free, publicly accessible tool that any user can customize to their needs in a few clicks.”

Gloria Sachdev, PharmD, President and CEO, Employers’ Forum of Indiana and Hospital Transparency Initiative Advisor

Additional Hospital Price Transparency Resources