Data doesn’t lie…thanks to Ge Bai, Turquoise Health and their teams analyzing hospital price transparency data, it might be possible to envision a future of affordable healthcare. Finally, we have data on 70 common CMS-specified high-volume healthcare services. And, it turns out, that cash prices determined unilaterally by hospitals are often lower than commercial prices negotiated between hospitals and insurers.
Why is that important? Because 26 million Americans don’t have health insurance. And, nearly 1 of 3 US workers are enrolled in high deductible, health savings accounts (so pay a large portion of their point of care health expenses). Understanding costs of “shoppable” services is important to these (and all) healthcare consumers.
If you are paying more out of pocket for things like labs, medications, imaging, etc. ask about our relationships with labs, pharmacies and imaging centers that offer affordable cash prices (that are often lower than negotiated insurance rates)!
Check out the link below and watch to the end because Chris Severn (CEO and cofounder of Turquoise Health) spells out a vision of simplicity, price convergence, and price competition in healthcare that may make it similar to other industries and lower healthcare costs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZaN_mtYHTGQ