INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – Consumers
shopping for health care in Indiana can now use a free website to compare
hospital charges and quality ratings. Developed by the Indiana Hospital
Association, careINsight—or mycareINsight.org—will help Hoosiers better
understand what goes into hospital billing and key questions to ask before
seeking treatment.
“The
confusion over health care pricing has gone on for too long, while the release
of huge amounts of medical data by the federal government has done little to
help consumers,” said Douglas Leonard, president of
Indiana Hospital Association. “Our goal with careINsight was to create an
easy-to-use tool that could clear up some of the confusion by making price and
quality data available to the public so Hoosiers can make a more fully informed
decision about their health care.”
The website, available at mycareINsight.org, displays hospital charge data compiled from the Indiana
State Department of Health and based on the 100 most common Indiana inpatient
services.
In addition, people who visit the
site can compare Indiana hospitals side-by-side based on quality measures data
such as patient satisfaction, mortalities, readmissions, early elective
deliveries and infections.
“The quality of the care patients
receive is just as important as the price. It is important to see other
patients’ outcomes when consumers evaluate their treatment options,” said
Leonard.
The
website includes a video to explain how to navigate the tool to compare
hospital charges and quality data, and another that helps consumers understand the high cost of health care.
“It has been very difficult trying
to explain to the public the difference between prices and charges in a system
where almost no one pays the amount listed on a hospital bill. Everyone pays a
different rate,” said Martin Padgett, president and CEO of Clark Memorial
Hospital in Jeffersonville and president of the IHA Board of Directors.
Padgett led IHA’s task force of
hospital leaders to help guide the development of this new tool. The website
will not contain hospital data from private insurance companies, which
negotiate payment rates with hospitals and garner discounts for higher volumes.
“Years of
government payment shortfalls and commercial insurance negotiations for
hospital services have hampered our efforts to tell patients what each
procedure cost and why. We want to ensure this tool helps
break down the confusion in a way that is easier for everyone to understand,”
added Padgett.
The careINsight tool includes a
search engine to look up charges by location, hospital and/or procedure.
Results will show a hospital-to-hospital comparison by quality and links to
hospital websites, as well as provide tips, education and links to financial
aid information.
One
Procedure. Two Different Hospitals. A Variety of Costs.
When comparing prices at two different hospitals, consumers are sometimes faced
with a different price tag for the same procedure.
According to IHA, the reason for the
difference depends on a number of factors, such as facility, staffing,
equipment costs and range of services offered. The health care services that
people need can vary from hospital to hospital.
For example, life-saving services
such as intensive care units, ambulance services, transplant programs, trauma
centers and burn units are expensive when available 24 hours a day, seven days
a week. And these costs are factored into all the services for which a
particular hospital charges.
In addition, the individual
hospital’s mission can affect pricing, because of the patient population it
serves and the necessity to provide essential public services. In 2012 alone,
Indiana hospitals absorbed $3 billion in unpaid charges by uninsured – costs
that are then factored into the prices for other hospital services.
“Ultimately, each patient is
unique,” said Leonard. “A procedure performed on a 27-year-old, otherwise
healthy male will likely cost less than the same procedure performed on a
57-year-old male who is overweight and diabetic.”
Business
Community Weighs In
The business community has a particular interest in ensuring health care
providers are doing all they can to address consumer concerns on pricing. Early
in the development process of careINsight, Indiana hospitals turned to the
Indiana Chamber of Commerce to get their input.
“People in Indiana want to
understand the prices they will pay and the quality they will receive for the
services they purchase, and health care is no different,” said Kevin Brinegar,
president and CEO of the Indiana Chamber of Commerce. “We applaud how our
hospitals have responded by creating careINsight, which helps guide patients to
the resources and information they need to make the best decision for their
treatment.”
Health care systems are experiencing
massive change and hospitals have been actively working to reduce their own
costs below historic levels by cutting administrative expenses, better managing
supply costs and streamlining patient flow. Hospitals and health systems are
redesigning the process of care to improve the value for patients by
collaborating with physicians, identifying unnecessary variations in practice
patterns and developing standardized protocols for procedures.
“Indiana hospitals are a vital part
of their communities, and the services they provide extend well beyond the four
walls of the hospital,” said IHA’s Leonard. “Hospitals are connecting with
local organizations and creating innovative programs to build stronger
communities, every day.”
In addition to providing the
day-to-day care of patients, hospitals throughout Indiana address basic needs
of the community, such as food, shelter and education. Hospitals also promote
healthier lifestyles through free health screenings that create opportunities
for people to improve their lives.
“But, we also have a responsibility to making sure health care is affordable,”
added Leonard.
Future
Efforts in Price Transparency
While the launch of IHA’s new online
pricing tool is the first of its kind in Indiana available for anyone to use,
Leonard admits it’s not a perfect solution.
“As a free resource for consumers,
however, this effort represents a major step forward toward greater price
transparency. No one group in Indiana is better suited to do this than the
hospitals themselves and the thousands of health care professionals who are
providing the critical care to help improve the lives of all Hoosiers – each
and every day,” said Leonard.
The word “transparency” is nothing
new for Indiana’s health care industry. For many years, Hoosier hospitals have
embraced greater transparency of their quality ratings with changes that
revolutionized the focus on quality and patient safety. As hospitals embraced
transparency for quality, according to Leonard, the public can count on
hospitals to do so with price.
“Indiana hospitals fully support the
gathering and reporting of quality and charge data, but it’s up to us to help
consumers make sense of this data, which is why we’re so excited to make
careINsight freely available to the public.”
