The Center for American Progress has released a report examining the rising prices that patients are incurring from Hospitals across the country. Commercial insurers are estimated to pay about twice what Medicare does for hospital care. High prices do not always indicate better quality; in fact, they often mask inefficiencies in the hospital business. Among potential solutions to the growing industry-wide problem is to introduce reference-based pricing as a way to help negate the rising costs. Medxoom’s proprietary Comparison Shopping technology helps patients educate themselves on procedure price and quality variances before treatment with their health plan.
The employers and people of Summit County in Colorado banded together to lower the prices at their hospital by 20% – a move that could spark change across the nation. One of the key factors in accomplishing this was the power of leverage gained by the knowledge the hospital was charging 5 to 8 times what Medicare was paying for the same procedures. Medxoom can help provide employers and their employees the much-needed knowledge of local price and quality variances with our proprietary comparison shopping tool prior to getting care.
Consumers are seeing rising costs in healthcare services as well as insurance plan deductibles. As patients try to save money where they can, Consumer Reports says that one way to save money is to ask for a direct cash from your healthcare providers. Medxoom can help patients weigh their options with pre-service pricing technology for healthcare services and employers with cash e-payments systems for their employees.
Hospitals are able to make millions of dollars through referrals from their staff physicians, a practice that is not illegal. However, if there are financial incentives tied to the physician referrals to their patients, this violates federal law. If illegal incentives are in place, patients, insurers and employers end up footing the bill. Medxoom’s Comparison Shopping technology used prior to service can help patients reduce costs and improve quality by showing any tests or MRIs in hospitals are much more expensive than in free standing centers not in hospitals.
A recent report has shown that consumers don’t know how much cost variation there is in health care services between providers, and it’s costing them $18 billion in overpayments due to the price variation seen across the healthcare industry from hospitals. In network price variation is negatively impacting all U.S. consumers. Medxoom’s proprietary comparison shopping tool allows consumers and employers to get a better understanding of the price and quality variation of a medical service before they get it.
Axios has found that hospital admissions, surgeries, and other procedures has been flat but that hasn’t prevented them from continuing to bring in more money than 2018. The rising costs in healthcare costs are a contributing factor, yet hospitals are making more money than ever. Medxoom can help even out the playing field in the modern healthcare marketplace with our proprietary price comparison shopping tool.
The healthcare marketplace continues to be impacted by the lack of transparency in both pricing to patients and costs incurred by hospitals. Hospitals are notorious for inconsistently charging for the same service across. Medxoom’s modern marketplace technology can help provide price transparency on current wide cost variations for the same medical services among providers.
As the costs continue to rise for basic coverage across the industry, it becomes more important than ever to understand your costs before incurring them. For non-emergency situations, comparing costs across your network can help save hundreds of dollars. Medxoom’s modern marketplace technology can help provide price transparency on current wide cost variations for the same medical services among providers.
The government continues to step in to try and help the American people with the rising costs of healthcare. An HHS proposal would shed light on the secret negotiated prices insurance companies pay. Making these prices public would infuse much-needed competition into health care’s bloated secret pricing and potentially drive down costs for patients while increasing competition for patients. As the employers wait for any government help to make the needed changes, Medxoom’s modern marketplace technology can help provide price transparency on current wide cost variations for the same medical services among providers.
Surprise out of network medical billing continues to plague patients all across our nation. Even though Bob Ensor was rushed to an in-network hospital, he was treated by two out-of-network plastic surgeons. Ensor then incurred over $167,000 in out of network bills from the surgeons his health insurer denied. Emergency situations seldom allow patients to check network coverages, and in this case the hospital knew the surgeons were out-of-network, but did not provide this information. The general lack of pricing and in or out of network doctors information in healthcare is an issue Medxoom can help employers with by educating patients to always ask doctors if they are in or out of network before getting treatment.