Results of Employers Forum Review of Data from 118 Hospitals
(Indianapolis, IN, October 29, 2021) The Employers’ Forum of Indiana reviewed 118 Indiana hospital websites to assess how they performed in regards to the CMS Federal Price Transparency Rule which requires hospitals to post their negotiated prices, which CMS calls standard charges.
Here is a link to the full report Federal Price Transparency Rule: Assessment of Indiana Hospitals.
Highlights
- 20.3% of hospitals scored 8 points (the best score)
- 55.9% of hospitals scored 7 points
- 14.4% of hospitals scored 6 points
- 9.3% of hospitals scored 5 points or less (4 hospitals scored 1 point, the worst score)
How we did our work
The Employers’ Forum of Indiana assessed hospital efforts to post the two required elements of CMS
rules:
- a comprehensive machine-readable file with all items and services provided by the hospital
- a consumer-friendly file, displaying 300 shoppable services, of which 70 are pre-chosen by CMS and 230 are selected by the individual hospital (a price estimator tool can also be used to meet this requirement).
“The Forum provided every hospital executive with the results of the review before final scoring, allowing time for them to hear our suggestions and make updates,” Sachdev said. “We got good feedback from many hospitals. They appreciated the suggestions, and as changes were made their scores increased.”
“Our assessment was conducted at a high level. We only assessed if a machine-readable file was posted and did not assess if it was comprehensive as we did not have the technology available,” Sachdev said.
The review found that most hospitals chose to post a price estimator tool instead of a simple file of shoppable services. Due to price estimator limitations, the report provided a snapshot, assessing 4 of the 300 services required.
The Forum is committed to enhancing hospital price transparency to help employers and consumers be informed shoppers of care. We are gratified with the collaborative approach we’ve had and positive responses from hospitals, and we have seen many commit to making their Price Transparency Tools user-friendly for consumer.
Questions and comments are very welcome.
Contact: Gloria Sachdev, BS Pharm, PharmD
President and CEO, Employers’ Forum of Indiana
gloria@employersforumindiana.org