MEDHOST Prepares Community Hospitals for Price Transparency 

The Price Transparency Rule  goes into full effect January 1, 2021 for hospitals.  To be compliant and avoid the $300 per day penalties, preparation needs to begin now. MEDHOST is committed to helping our Community Hospital customers to meet this regulatory challenge. 

In an article posted at the beginning of 2020, we offer a quick breakdown of four core Price Transparency facts. According to the rule, hospitals will be required to provide the ability to search a minimum of 300 shoppable services in a public place.  

To ease the transition to compliance, MEDHOST built first generation Price Transparency tools and services into our current digital patient management solutions.  Ultimately, our system will update shoppable services in real time as payor contracts and charge masters are updated. Current payor contracts and charge masters avoid patient dissatisfaction resulting from presentation of inaccurate information as well as preventing revenue loss.  Many competing price transparency solutions magnify this problem by presenting past billing errors. 

MEDHOST’s Price Transparency Solution  

The MEDHOST  Price Transparency  solution simplifies the creation of shoppable features for facility procedures and services on a public-facing hospital website. In addition, the MEDHOST solution will:  

• Provide public facing, web-based search page that hospitals can embed on their website, allowing users to search 300 “shoppable services”  
• Include the ability for providers to automatically generate and embed machine-readable, comprehensive, standard charges using the solution 
• Minimize disruption to existing customer workflows by avoiding cumbersome third-party integrations
• Integrate with MEDHOST Contract Management tools and services to help generate more accurate and up-to-date pricing estimates

Take Price Transparency as an Opportunity  

The importance of staying current with mandates could trickle down to negatively impact patients and providers. While getting regulations right the first time is critical for hospitals and clinics, unfortunately, many healthcare facilities lack the time and staff to achieve these demands. However, they don’t have to manage these new Price Transparency challenges alone and settle for less than the best. MEDHOST has strategically provided a way for facilities to help solve for Price Transparency regulatory challenges.  It is also an opportunity to improve revenues through better maintenance. 

MEDHOST revenue cycle management specialists have noted two major challenges that may arise from Price Transparency requirements:  

1. Out of date payer contracts and/or charge masters may lead to price estimate inaccuracies 
2. Lack in dedicated contract management resources  

Partnering MEDHOST’s Price Transparency solution with MEDHOST’s Contract Management Solution and Contract Management Services can help facilities solve the challenges above, so they don’t have to spend time digging through the weeds on their own. Our Contract Management Solution works within the MEDHOST system, without requiring additional connectivity or data extractions to third-party systems, to produce accurate and up-to-date price estimates by ensuring insurance payor contracts are updated regularly.  Additionally, our team identifies accounts to recover insurance underpayment reimbursements for facilities.  

Through ongoing regulatory changes, we maintain a commitment to deliver timely, cost-effective solutions, to help hospitals save time resources, reduce cost, maximize revenue, and create better experiences for the communities they serve.  

Start preparing today. We’re here to help. To learn more contact us at inquiries@medhost.com or call 1.800.383.6278.