Bargain Hunting at Your Nearest Department Store or Hospital?

Hospitals are trying to make pricing for consumers less confusing. They’re trying to make their “Byzantine pricing,” which is normally meant for insurers, understandable to patients.

Gone are the days of hidden medical prices. In a time of high out-of-pocket healthcare costs, high deductibles and rising medical debt, consumers are using transparent pricing information to shop around.

The topic of price transparency, and consumers who use this information to price shop, was recently covered in a StarTribune article published Oct. 1, 2007. The article profiles price shopper Bob Braschler who needed cataract surgery. After calling multiple hospitals to get quotes on the procedure, Braschler found a place that would perform the surgery for $10,000 less than the initial estimate he received.

Braschler's story is one way consumers are dealing with high healthcare costs. But consumers are not the only ones changing the way they do things: Hospitals and insurers are also finding new ways to react to the price shopping epidemic.

First, they are adding more staff to answer patients' questions. With so many more price shoppers, hospitals and insurers need to have the resources to answer cost-related questions.

Hospitals are also trying to make pricing for consumers less confusing. They're trying to make their “Byzantine pricing,” which is normally meant for insurers, understandable to patients.

In some cases, hospitals are even dropping their prices to stay competitive. Now that consumers have access to pricing information, it's vital hospitals not only have competitive pricing, but that they can justify where the costs go. Nancy Braschler, Bob's wife, said she calls hospitals and insists they give her a breakdown of the charges for a procedure. She said she likes to know what she's paying for.

Children's Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota said they are reacting to pricing transparency by introducing flat fees for common procedures instead of charging for time spent in the operating room, the article said.

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