The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Providence, RI.
Division of Plastic Surgery, The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Providence, RI.
J Hand Surg Am. 2023 Dec;48(12):1263-1267. doi: 10.1016/j.jhsa.2023.07.019. Epub 2023 Sep 9.
In 2020, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services issued a historic rule on price transparency that aimed to better inform Americans about their health care costs by requiring hospitals to publicly provide pricing information on their items and services. In this review article, we describe the current gaps in transparency that persist after the implementation of the rule, from incomplete pricing files to noncompliance despite the issuance of monetary penalties by Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Price transparency is vital for hand and upper extremity procedures, given their cost variation and patient desire for more financial discussions with their physicians regarding these procedures. Further improvements and interventions by various stakeholders are necessary to improve the current state of hospital price transparency and cost information for these patients and for anyone who seeks to make informed health care decisions. Policymakers should enforce stronger financial interventions and penalties and promote the use of bundled payments to facilitate better compliance by hospitals through a more expanded and accessible display of health care service costs. To help increase health care financial literacy among consumers, hand surgeons and hospital staff should engage in more dialog regarding health care prices and financial considerations with their patients.
2020 年，医疗保险和医疗补助服务中心发布了一项具有历史意义的价格透明度规定，旨在通过要求医院公开提供其项目和服务的定价信息，让美国人更好地了解自己的医疗费用。在这篇综述文章中，我们描述了该规定实施后仍然存在的透明度差距，包括定价文件不完整以及尽管医疗保险和医疗补助服务中心发布了货币罚款，但仍存在违规行为。鉴于手和上肢手术的成本差异以及患者希望就这些手术与医生进行更多财务讨论，价格透明度对手和上肢手术至关重要。为了改善这些患者以及任何希望做出明智医疗决策的人的医院价格透明度和成本信息，各利益相关者需要进一步改进和干预。政策制定者应实施更强有力的财务干预和处罚，并通过更广泛和可访问的医疗服务成本展示，促进捆绑支付的使用，以促进医院更好地遵守规定。为了帮助提高消费者的医疗保健财务知识，手外科医生和医院工作人员应与患者就医疗保健价格和财务考虑因素进行更多的对话。
