This rural health system has nearly a decade of experience offering cash-only package pricing for medical services including, most recently, inpatient stays
While healthcare networks and hospital organizations nationwide argued over pricing transparency, Pomerene Hospital in Millersburg, Ohio, embraced the concept. The not-for-profit hospital developed packages of care that include “one all-inclusive price for tests, procedures, and episodes of care, rather than a lengthy list of itemized charges that didn’t even include professional fees” for its self-paying customers, Modern Healthcare reported.
Clinical laboratories and pathology groups that read Dark Daily know that on Jan. 1, 2021, a new Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) final rule (CMS-1717-F2) on price transparency goes into effect. It requires hospitals to publish their standard chargemaster prices, as well as payer-negotiated prices, online for customers to review.
A companion proposed rule (CMS‑9915‑P) will, if passed, require health plans and healthcare insurers to disclose covered healthcare costs to customers upon request, including “an estimate of such individual’s cost-sharing liability for covered items or services furnished by a particular provider.”
These rules have created a fire storm of controversy. Hospital systems and healthcare organizations like the American Hospital Association (AHA) argue that revealing payer-negotiated rates will undermine health networks’ negotiating power with insurers and increases hospital prices.
They may be right. But that hasn’t stopped one health network in rural Ohio from providing a blueprint on price transparency that could be a model for the rest of the nation—at least for one segment of its customer base.
Bundled Care Packages Increase Revenues at Pomerene
Pomerene is a not-for-profit healthcare provider established in 1919. Originally, the tiny hospital had “a six bed women’s ward, a three bed men’s ward, six private rooms, a three bed OB ward, and a nursery with five cribs. There were ten physicians on staff,” notes the hospital’s website.
Today, Pomerene has more than 325 employees, 80 physicians, and 55 licensed beds. The hospital has 30 departments on three floors and is one of the largest employers in Holmes County.
Pomerene has developed bundled care packages for more than 300 services—including inpatient care—for Amish and Anabaptist patients, as well as any other self-pay patients who pay their bills in full at the time of service, Modern Healthcare reported.
The initiative came in response to concerns raised by the area’s Amish and Anabaptist communities, which make up roughly 40% of the county’s population. They do not use commercial health insurance. Instead, they pay their medical bills out of pocket, and when they are unable to pay for medical services, benefit actions and church support fill the financial gaps.
Church members asked Pomerene for guaranteed bundled pricing. They did not want the uncertainty of hospital bills that might include lists of itemized charges, but not professional fees and other potential costs.
“We have our own healthcare,” a retired Amish carpenter (who asked that his name not be used) told Reuters. “They (hospitals) give you a bill. If you can’t pay it, your church will.”
Both religious groups also value thriftiness and are known to be fierce negotiators. In recent years, they lobbied Pomerene Hospital to include inpatient care in its all-inclusive pricing structure.
“We assume a certain level of risk with this financial arrangement,” Pomerene Hospital CEO Jason Justus, who at the time was Pomerene’s Chief Financial Officer, told Modern Healthcare. “But it’s about saying what we’ll do and doing what we say. That builds a great deal of trust in the community.” Justus took over as CEO in July, 2019, reported The Daily Record.
In total, nearly one-quarter of the hospital’s patient revenue comes from bundled-service packages, with 3,387 packages provided last year, Modern Healthcare reported. In 2018, Pomerene brought in $36,971,931 in operating revenue, according to Modern Healthcare Metrics.
Bundled Payments Drive Innovation
Bundled payments also have forced hospital administrators and staff at Pomerene to find innovative ways to cut costs by shortening patient stays. For example, Modern Healthcare reported that the length of hospital stay for childbirth, which at the time averaged two-to-four days, dropped to 24 hours after the hospital created a 24-hour package for obstetrical deliveries. Within 18 months, 80% of childbirth cases fit the 24-hour model.
“Here is free market economics at work,” said Robert Michel, Dark Daily’s Editor-in-Chief. “This hospital understands that it must meet the needs of this unique group of patients with good service and quality at a fair price. That understanding comes with an incentive for the hospital’s staff to identify and implement innovations to cut costs while improving quality.”
However, Pomerene Hospital’s policy of disclosing prices to patients in advance of services remains uncommon in the healthcare industry. “Outside of Medicare, bundled pricing is rare-to-nonexistent among full-service US hospitals, most of which say they don’t know their actual costs for providing care and, therefore, can’t offer such prices,” Modern Healthcare stated.
For competitive reasons, Pomerene does not publicly post its package prices and only prospective cash-paying patients are provided the cost breakdowns. That will most likely change following enactment of the CMS final rule.
Other Health Systems That Bundled Prices
Though Pomerene does not shares its price-packaging methods with other hospitals, its track record for attracting cash-paying patients made it an example to other hospitals serving similar religious communities.
The Medical Center at Scottsville in Kentucky followed Pomerene’s lead and discounted cash prices—paid upfront or before discharge—by 25% for 300 medical services, including childbirth and common surgical procedures. This was to attract the area’s Mennonite population, noted Quartz magazine.
“I will tell you they are very conscientious about cost. They are very business-savvy and will shop around,” Eric Hagan, Regional Vice President of Operations at Med Center Health and Administrator of the Medical Center at Scottsville, told Quartz.
Will Americans as a whole be just as eager to shop for medical services? The answer to that question may determine whether increased price transparency throughout healthcare, including clinical laboratory testing and anatomic pathology services, results in lowering their healthcare costs.
—Andrea Downing Peck
Related Information:
Hospital Develops Package Prices to Lure Cash-Paying Patients
The Amish Understand a Crucial Element of Modern Medicine that Most Americans Don’t
How Do Amish Choose a Hospital?
As U.S. Struggles with Health Reform, the Amish Go their Own Way
