A Cuero, Texas based company’s self-funded group health insurance plan renews next month. Most of their employees use the local hospital in this one hospital town. Which carrier has the best prices at the town’s only hospital?
The government says you should know. Uncle Sam says hospitals must disclose pricing. Standard charges hospitals are required to list include four things:
- Hospital’s gross charge,
- Payer-specific negotiated charge,
- Maximum and minimum deidentified negotiated charges,
- Cash-discounted price
So we checked pricing at Cuero Community Hospital on their website. What we found was very interesting.
A random view of pricing indicates the BUCA’s get a substantially better deal than the rental networks. All the BUCA negotiated pricing is about equal and is approximately 60% of billed charges. The rentals, on the other hand, average about 85-90% of billed charges. Cash prices are about 20% off BUCA average allowed amounts.”
In proposed regulations, CMS seeks to strengthen hospital price transparency requirements | HFMA
