viernes, 30 de mayo de 2014

Towards Affordable Care: Policies To Reduce Price Variability | AHRQ Innovations Exchange

Towards Affordable Care: Policies To Reduce Price Variability | AHRQ Innovations Exchange

AHRQ Health Care Innovations Exchange: Innovations and tools to improve quality and reduce disparities

AHRQ’s Health Care Innovations Exchange Focuses on Policies To Reduce Price Variability

The latest issue of AHRQ’s Health Care Innovations Exchangeexplores hospital pricing for elective procedures, which can  vary significantly across facilities within a given market area. Differences are typically unrelated to variations in quality of care. The featured profilein California, where state legislation promotes fair hospital pricing, describes a retirement system that incorporated a reference-pricing policy for certain procedures in its benefits design, enabling plan enrollees to select high-value hospitals. Featured quality tools include a tool for consumers to estimate how much providers charge for medical and dental services in their area, a website to help patients in California navigate the application process for discounted care from hospitals and a guide for consumers on the average cost of health care services to support price comparisons.

Towards Affordable Care: Policies To Reduce Price VariabilityTowards Affordable Care: Policies To Reduce Price Variability
Hospital pricing for elective procedures can vary significantly across facilities within a given market area, and differences are typically unrelated to variations in quality of care. Under most benefit plans, insured consumers lack incentive to choose hospitals offering a lower price for these services. In addition, prices charged for general hospital care often differ based on patients’ insurance status.

The featured policy Innovations describe a retirement system that incorporated a reference-pricing policy for certain procedures in its benefits design, enabling plan enrollees to select high-value hospitals; and California state legislation that promotes fair hospital pricing.

The featured QualityTools include a tool for consumers to estimate how much providers charge for medical and dental services in their area, a Web site to help patients in California navigate the application process for discounted care from hospitals, and a guide for consumers on the average cost of health care services to support price comparisons.
Featured Innovations:
Featured QualityTools:
 FAIR Health Consumer Cost Lookup
Developed by FAIR Health
 HospitalBillHelp.org
Developed by Health Access California
 Transparency Health Care Prices in Virginia
Developed by Virginia Health Information
Also in This Issue:
Innovations >
QualityTools >
 AHRQ Common Formats
Developed by Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
 OpenNotes Toolkit
Developed by Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center; Geisinger Health System; University of Washington, Harborview Medical Center

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