US healthcare enters 2024 with transparency momentum to build on

Both providers and payers upped their game on price transparency in 2023.

The year closed with almost 91% of affected hospitals posting machine-readable files, while the number of payers posting data rose from 67 to more than 200.

The progress gets fleshed out in a report published Jan. 4 by the healthcare software supplier Turquoise Health.

The company also notes that, as of Dec. 15, 83% of hospitals were sharing negotiated rates online.

Some 562 hospitals entered the posting arena in 2023, bringing the total to 6,357 hospitals (out of around 7,300 active hospitals in the U.S.), according to data reported by Turquoise.

Here’s the breakdown of hospital counts with type of rates posted.

• 5,763 hospitals (90.7%) have posted machine-readable files.
• 5,280 hospitals (83.1%) are sharing negotiated rates.
• 4,911 hospitals (77.3%) are sharing cash rates.
• 5,109 hospitals (80.4%) are sharing surgery rates.
• 5,134 hospitals (80.8%) are sharing imaging rates.
• 5,170 hospitals (81.3%) are sharing rates for enrollees of Blue Cross Blue Shield, United Healthcare, Cigna, Aetna and Humana.
• 4,137 hospitals (65.1%) are sharing diagnosis-related group (DRG) rates.
• 4,412 hospitals (69.4%) are sharing drug rates.

“One theme that emerged from the 2023 price transparency landscape is consolidation,” the authors comment, noting that numerous bills were melded into the Lower Costs, More Transparency Act.

This bill, which passed the House of Representatives Dec. 11, “is expansive and stands to codify price transparency reporting for hospitals, payers, non-hospital entities and pharmacy benefit managers into law.”

While Lower Costs, More Transparency continues on to the Senate, Turquoise points out, all three current rules and laws—Hospital Final Rules, the Transparency in Coverage rule, and the No Surprises Act—remain in effect.

Read the rest.