Providing patients with an accurate estimate of out-of-pocket costs before imaging services take place can decrease lost revenue and increase patient satisfaction, according to a new study published in the Journal of the American College of Radiology.
“Price transparency is of particular interest in radiology because both patients and referring physicians are increasingly being given radiology pricing data by a variety of public, private, and nonprofit entities and are further being encouraged to ‘price shop’ for imaging services,” wrote Hansel J. Otero, MD, with the department of radiology at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and colleagues. “However, the choice of a ‘cheaper’ imaging provider might result in a worse medical experience for the patient. If price transparency is only used as a means to stimulate price-based competition among imaging providers, it might disincentivize quality.”
The authors worked to improve price transparency at their own hospital in December 2016, creating a Patient Cost-Estimation (PCE) department to directly discuss costs with patients and their families. The PCE department, which included four full-time specialists in addition to “supervisory and managerial support,” was available through radiology department schedulers and could be reached directly during normal business hours. Patients scheduled for fluoroscopy or cardiac MRI were called and told about the PCE department due to those imaging services being “identified as two key lines of service with high variability when compared with other regional providers.”
Overall, during the PCE department’s first year, 878 radiology cost estimates were provided to patients. While 390 estimates were for fluoroscopy services, another 273 were for cardiac MR and 105 were for CT exams.
Otero and colleagues noted how this improved transparency directly leads to cost savings for the hospital.
“As part of our institutional policy, some charges and fees associated with complaints citing ‘unexpected’ charges and noncovered services result in the waiving of such fees or charges and hence in revenue losses by the department,” the authors wrote. “As a result of increased out-of-pocket price transparency, the hospital has decreased the amount of these patient self-pay adjustments in the selected radiology divisions by 63 percent from fiscal year 2016 to fiscal year 2017.”
Follow-up surveys also found that patients were happy with the PCE department, with more than 85 percent of patients who saying they were satisfied with its timeliness.
“Providing accurate estimates of out of pocket costs to patients before imaging services is a proactive response to increasing demand for price transparency,” the authors concluded. “Cost estimates at our institution resulted in fewer billing-related complaints, decreased revenue losses, and increased overall patient satisfaction.”
Michael has more than 16 years of experience as a professional writer and editor. He has written at length about cardiology, radiology, artificial intelligence and other key healthcare topics.