“Patients are being asked to act as consumers in a marketplace in which price—a fundamental driver of consumer behavior—is often unknown until after the service they purchase has been performed.”
-HFMA Price Transparency Task Force
Multiple factors, including health care reform and the rise of high deductible health plans, are transforming patients into consumers and pushing the development of multiple tools and platforms for them to attempt to determine the price of the health care they need to receive. However, many physicians and facilities such as ambulatory surgery centers are uncertain when and how to proceed in developing a price transparency strategy. The need for such a strategy varies by market and a clear consensus about the "best" option to choose has yet to emerge.
How is AMSURG Working to Develop a Pricing Transparency Strategy?
AMSURG has analyzed numerous providers within each of the three transparency provider models: payer price calculators, consumer websites and pricing transparency platforms, and is working on building relationships with many of the resources in this space to ensure we are poised to provide centers a market and procedure-specific strategy when the timing is right.
Need for Quality Data and AMSURG's WebAdvantage Platform
A recent study outlined the need to include data on the quality of care alongside pricing data as patients often equate “low-cost” with “low quality.”
Believing that providers themselves should also be a resource for transparency-related information, AMSURG is pursuing the development of tools that will allow our surgery centers to post pricing information, accompanied by strong, consumer-friendly quality metrics, on individual WebAdvantage sites. WebAdvantage is AMSURG's proprietary digital marketing platform that incorporates surgery center websites with an online marketing strategy.
If you are interested in learning how a partnership with AMSURG can help your surgery center respond to health care trends such as the move towards price transparency, contact us by email or call 877-741-0085.