Scheduling
Time & Attendance
Forecasting
Employee App
Payroll Integrations
Communications
Legal
By Rita Pyrillis
Dec. 23, 2014
Finding out the cost of colonoscopy or a hip replacement got a little easier in Massachusetts last fall thanks to a law that requires insurers to provide medical costs to consumers immediately upon request.
Proponents who say that price transparency can save consumers money and lower prices for everyone add that the law, which took effect Oct. 1, 2014, is an important step toward pulling the curtain back on health care costs.
As many employers know, helping consumers understand what those costs mean is not so simple, said Steve Wojcik, vice president of public policy at the National Business Group on Health.
“In addition to price variability within hospitals or physicians’ practices, we’re also seeing the variability for the same service across different sites,” he said. “As employers adopt consumer-driven health plans, and increasingly, as the only type of plan, those plans rely on the ability for employees to shop around for prices. Employers are pushing the health plans to offer transparency tools so they can compare prices.”
In fact, nearly three-fourths of large employers currently have or plan to offer price transparency tools in 2015, according to a recent NGBH health plan design survey.
But online tools can only go so far in helping employees determine “the actual cost” of delivering a particular service, according to Steve Kelly, founder ELAP Services, a health care cost-management firm. He said that consumers need to understand the difference between what a service really costs and how much they are being charged for it.
“A provider may charge $40,000 for a hip or knee replacement, but they might accept $10,000 from Blue Cross,” he said. “It’s important to know if the price the employee is seeing is the cost of the service or the accepted rate for that service.”
Good luck getting that information in an understandable format, he added.
“Medical providers are not prepared or willing to provide this information so it’s difficult to get a straight answer,” Kelly said. “Equally difficult is that most employers are already baffled by the health care system.”
He recommends that employers start by offering price comparisons for a few common diagnostic procedures like mammograms and CT scans.
“Just turning the workforce loose on the provider community to get this information is going to be problematic.”
Come see what we’re building in the world of predictive employee scheduling, superior labor insights and next-gen employee apps. We’re on a mission to automate workforce management for hourly employees and bring productivity, optimization and engagement to the frontline.
Compliance
Minimum Wage by State in 2023 – All You Need to KnowSummary Twenty-three states and D.C. raised their minimum wage rates in 2023, effective January 1. Thr...
federal law, minimum wage, pay rates, state law, wage law compliance
Legal
New Labor Laws Taking Effect in 2023The new year is fast approaching, and with its arrival comes a host of new labor laws that will impact ...
labor laws, minimum wage, wage and hour law
Legal
Wage and Hour Laws in 2022: What Employers Need to KnowWhether a mom-and-pop shop with a handful of employees or a large corporation staffing thousands, compl...
compliance, wage and hour law