Making Provider Health Care Prices Transparent: The Key to Success of Consumer-Directed Health Care
| Date: March 7, 2006 | Location: Washington, DC |
March 7, the Center for Health Transformation and the Galen Institute partnered to sponsor a “Right to Know” luncheon policy briefing on Capitol Hill: “Making Provider Healthcare Prices Transparent: The Key to Success of Consumer-Driven Healthcare.”
Before a packed room, project director Jim Frogue opened the event, welcoming representatives from state and federal government, as well as those from the private sector. The event was designed to inform dialogue and policy relating to the importance of health providers making quality and pricing information available to consumers. Participating speakers included CHT Founder Newt Gingrich, U.S. Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK), Congressman Pete Sessions (R-TX), and Roy Ramthun, Special Assistant to the President for Health Policy. Galen Institute founder Grace-Marie Turner moderated the day’s activities, and the event also featured a panel of experts, including Dr. Merrit Quarum, CEO of Qmedtrix; Dr. David MacDonald of Liberty Health Group; and Raj Bal, Executive VP, Individual Markets, Assurant Health.
Below is a brief synopsis of the issues discussed by the speakers and panelists. (Also, please note that Speaker Gingrich and Jim Frogue co-authored an op-ed on the issue of health transparency – “Sticker Shock Could Help with Healthcare Costs,” originally published March 8 in The Hill.)
Roy Ramthun- Special Assistant to the President for Health Policy-Mr. Ramthun presented the Administration’s support for injecting transparency into the health system, noting that President Bush envisions all medical providers being able and willing to post their prices publicly. He also noted that the President expects collaboration between government and industry on these issues, saying that the government will ask the insurance companies with whom they contract to disclose fees to enrollees.
Senator Tom Coburn- Senator Coburn articulated passionately the need to bring market forces to bear on the health system, calling for less government restrictions and more competitive innovation. Sen. Coburn said that healthcare should place the patient first, and that there is “no way to fix healthcare by tinkering on the edges [of the system].” He asserted that transparency and competition will advance healthcare as they have the rest of our economy.
Speaker Newt Gingrich- Speaker Gingrich proposed that creating a 21st Century Intelligent Health System requires as a precondition transparency of health pricing and quality. Citing an AHIP poll that shows 93% of Americans believe they should have access to price and quality information before making health-care decisions, Speaker Gingrich said healthcare should follow the lead of other industries in moving toward more open pricing and marketing models, particularly through use of the Internet. “Better health is actually cheaper,” said the Speaker, citing data available on Right-to-Know website resources such as MyFloridaRx.com and FloridaCompareCare.com.
Congressman Pete Sessions- Representative Sessions thanked Newt for his extensive work on health issues, and described his position that consumers must have access to accurate price information before they can make rational health decisions. Congressman Sessions has introduced a bill in the US House of Representatives that promotes transparency and requires reporting.
Dr. Merrit Quarum, Qmedtrix- Dr. Quarum argued that transparency will move the health system toward a point where there is true insurability for all Americans, noting that the financial cost-drivers in insurance aren’t for insurability: “What we have now are health benefit administrators, not health insurers.” He called for hospitals to reveal their pricing logic so that consumers can play a key role in reducing health costs.
Dr. David MacDonald, Liberty Health Group- Dr. MacDonald said that healthcare costs should parallel other costs in society, and that innovation should be encouraged and rewarded. Citing examples of how the free market can drive down costs and improve access to better quality care, Dr. MacDonald said transparency in health quality and pricing information would allow consumers to have a bigger stake in their healthcare.
Raj Bal, Assurant Health- Representing the insurer that sold the first HSA, Mr. Bal recalled how the expansion of health management organizations in the 1980’s and 1990’s “eliminated consumers’ skin in the game [of healthcare].” But now that consumer-driven healthcare has arrived, consumers need transparency in health information, asserting that people not only need this information, “but they also have a right to it.” “Healthcare consumers are re4ally frustrated today – it’s the only business where the buyer, the seller and the payer (the insurer and/or financer) have no idea what the services cost at the time that they are purchased.”
