Hospitals weigh in on "pricing transparency"

The AHA passes policy asking for legislation on making hospital charges available to consumers.

By Katherine Vogt, AMNews staff. May 22/29, 2006.

With the American Hospital Assn. voting in favor of a resolution promoting price transparency, hospitals, physicians and health plans are now all supportive of the issue.

They all are on record as saying making charge information available will enable people to make better decisions as they take on more financial responsibility for their care in consumer-directed health plans, including health savings accounts.

Now all parties are trying to determine what specific information should be presented, and how and where it should be presented.

At its annual meeting in Washington, the AHA's board of trustees announced a policy that supports federal requirements for states to work with their hospital associations to make hospital charge information available to consumers. The policy also encourages requirements for states to work with insurers to make information available about expected out-of-pocket costs before medical visits.

AHA President Dick Davidson said that similar efforts are already underway in several states. Individual hospitals also have launched efforts to post pricing information online for certain procedures. "But more can and should be done to share this type of information -- one of a number of factors in choosing a hospital or health plan -- with consumers," he said in a prepared statement.

AHA spokeswoman Amy Lee said the hospital industry was hopeful that potential competitive issues could be addressed by examining pricing transparency at the state level. That's because local hospitals would work together to develop the guidelines about what would be disclosed.