Public Hospital in Phoenix Slashes Patient Self-Pay Prices by 50% to Increase Hospital Price Transparency
Maricopa Integrated Health System reports that price transparency pays off by reducing uncompensated care and increasing business
Arizona has a new law that requires hospitals, medical laboratories, diagnostic imaging facilities, ambulatory surgery centers, and urgent-care centers to publish the prices they charge self-pay and uninsured patients for the 50 most common inpatient and outpatient services. The law took effect on January 1, 2014.
News accounts report that just one hospital took steps to publish its prices earlier this year. Pathologists and clinical laboratory managers will find the experience of Maricopa Integrated Health System to be instructive, as hospital administrators there publicly state that this was the right thing to do for patients in their community. (more…)