A new study in JACR reveals an uncomfortable reality about medical imaging price transparency: Patients who knew how much they would have to pay for their imaging exam were less likely to complete their study.
Price transparency has been touted as a patient-friendly tool that can get patients engaged with their care while also helping them avoid nasty billing surprises for out-of-pocket costs.
- Price transparency is considered to be so important that CMS in 2021 implemented rules requiring hospitals to disclose their standard charges online, as well as post a user-friendly list of their services that includes prices.
But given that the rules were implemented relatively recently, not much is known about how they might affect patient behavior, such as compliance with recommended follow-up imaging exams.
- Indeed, a recent study by some of the same authors found that patients are largely unaware of how much their imaging exams will cost them.
So researchers analyzed data from two previously published studies of patients who either completed or were scheduled for outpatient imaging exams in Southern California.
- Patients were asked if they had been told how much their exam would cost them out-of-pocket when they scheduled it.
Of the 532 patients who were surveyed, researchers found …
- Only 15% said they knew about their out-of-pocket costs before their imaging exam.
- Fewer patients who completed their exams knew their costs compared to those who canceled (12% vs. 22%).
- Patients who knew their costs were 67% less likely to complete their appointment than those who didn’t (OR=0.33).
So what’s the solution? The researchers suggested that healthcare providers may need to take a more proactive approach to disclosing price information to patients.
- One possibility would be to integrate pricing discussions into patient-provider communications when ordering imaging exams, rather than relying on patients to seek pricing information on their own.
The Takeaway
The findings show that medical imaging price transparency is more complicated than just posting a list of prices online and expecting patients to do the rest of the work. Imaging providers may need to get more involved in pricing discussions – the question is whether many of them are ready for it.
