In The Know - MEDSEEK News and Expert Opinion on the eHealth Industry

Transparency at what cost?

As hospitals, insurers work to be more upfront on their pricing, questions remain over demand for the data and its usefulness

Article by: Cinda Becker

Hospitals from around the nation converge on Omaha to share cost and quality transparency best practices

Last week Alegent Health and MEDSEEK hosted the inaugural "Power to the Patient"forum in Omaha, Neb. The purpose of the hands-on, practical workshop was to share Alegent's experiences in deploying MyCost [cost transparency web-based application] with health systems around the nation. With more than 45 attendees from over 10 organizations from diverse markets converging to learn how to enhance the experience their patients and community has with their organizations, we can say the event was a huge success.

MyCost was born out of Alegent's decision to offer a consumer-driven health plan (CDHP) option for its 8,500 employees, and the need for transparency in enabling consumers [their employees] to make informed decisions based on quality and cost of service.

As a result of strong leadership, and the desire to do the right thing for it's employees and community, MyCost and Quality Reports were published via Alegent's web site in early 2007 and late 2006, respectively.

The service, despite early trepidation, has been widely adopted by the community and the forum was conceived by Alegent and MEDSEEK to share their successes and lessons learned with other organizations.

To learn more about Alegent Health's experience read their case study.

 

Alegent Health delivers price transparency to its community

Seems as though Algent Health is on a roll. We just learned they were featured in December 2007 issue of Healthcare Informatics. The article is entitled Pulling Back the Curtains (great title by the way) and features several hospital systems delivering price transparency to their community.

In January 2007, a ground-breaking online application called My Cost, conceived by Alegent Health and MEDSEEK, went live. My Cost provides consumers with information on fees and estimated out-of-pocket costs for nearly 500 common treatments, based on the consumer's individual health plan or financial situation. Uninsured consumers have access to a list of self-pay prices for frequently purchased services as well as information on financial assistance programs for needed services that are cost-prohibitive.

In demonstrating its commitment to price transparency Alegent Health and MEDSEEK are conducting a two-day hands-on workshop on the topic called POWER TO THE PATIENT. This practical workshop is available to all hospital and we encourage you to sign-up, as space is limited.

In addition to the article in Healthcare Information, feel free to read Alegent's success story published within our web site.

Web-based Patient Empowerment

Many industries must balance increasing costs with market constraints on maximum prices, including the pass-through costs to consumers. As challending as this scenario may be, several industry leaders effectively have addressed these issues throughout the past decade.

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