Transparent Healthcare: Now You See It

Healthcare in the United States and right here in Wisconsin is undergoing significant change. Employers have reached their limit in terms of funding health insurance and are shifting a significant portion of their costs to employees. As employees’ pocketbooks feel the pain, a new consumerism movement is taking place in healthcare. Consumerism is a process that seeks to protect and inform consumers by requiring such practices as honest packaging and advertising, guarantees, and improved safety standards. As this movement progresses through the healthcare industry, it promises to shape the ways in which we purchase and use healthcare services.

That change is generating new calls for transparency in the healthcare industry. Simply put, transparency involves giving the consumer access to more and better information for making better health service selections and decisions. This process is being driven by a number of key players in healthcare.

Two basic types of information fall within the realm of transparency: quality reporting and cost of care.

Transparency and Quality Reporting, deals with the quality of providers, such as physicians, hospitals, laboratories, radiology centers, and ambulatory surgical centers. A number of government and private sources now provide quality comparisons of providers. Many are available online. These comparisons allow the consumer to evaluate both general and specific quality ratings between providers. For example, if an individual needs heart surgery, he can compare key quality indicators and, in some cases, outcomes for hospitals under consideration. Soon, new information will allow individuals to compare physicians and specialists.

Transparency and the Cost of Care. A greater number of providers are making available to consumers the costs for routine procedures or general care, an occurrence that has been prompted by competition from retail medicine. The result? Hospitals, clinics and individual physicians are now posting prices for office visits, vaccinations, and routine tests.

It is quite difficult for hospitals, in particular, to provide accurate pricing for all of the care they provide. Some high-end care has great variability, based on the patient and their treatment needs. One may never get a comprehensive, accurate quote for a heart surgery. It is doubtful that a consumer would select the lowest cost provider for such a major need anyway. However, it is likely that consumers will require increasing levels of information about common procedures. This will help consumers make better decisions for their needs and budgets.

Transparency is a key factor in the progression toward healthcare consumerism. As consumers spend more of their own dollars on care, they need information that helps them make the best decisions. Transparency will help educate the population about quality, outcomes and costs for providers in a wide range of services. Consumers will use this information to seek out their best options. Educated consumers of health services are the only consumers who will survive and thrive in the future.

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