In November, CMS updated hospital price transparency regulation for hospitals with more than 30 beds.
CMS has run into obstacles enforcing price transparency, with many hospitals refusing to comply. On the ASC side, some leaders said price transparency could benefit individual centers.
Colleen Ingraham, president of the McMahon Group, chief operating officer of the Prairie Spine & Pain Institute and co-founder of Illinois Free Market Medical Association, joined the Becker's ASC Review 27th Annual Meeting: The Business and Operations of ASCs Oct. 21-23 in Chicago.
Editor's note: Her response was lightly edited.
Colleen Ingraham: If you don't have transparent prices, you've probably already started to cast doubt in some buyers' minds. You may even be in their existing local network, and they have a $5,000 deductible within their employer arrangement, but they still may choose one of the centers that is already transparent. You'll have no patient responsibility, and you'll get paid on the day of surgery. You will not only eliminate that burden, which is the whole idea, but now you have a patient showing up and saying, 'This is great. I saved this much money.' So now we've reversed, turned it all on its head. And that's your opportunity.
As far as price transparency goes — back to the opportunity here for ASCs. Don't wait to go kicking and screaming like the carriers in the hospitals have. You know your case cost. If you don't, you should get familiar with it and be proactive.
Just like we're talking about the cases that migrated out to the ASC, that should have been our opportunity to say, well, of course we're the best location. We've been fighting to get them here because it's more appropriate. It was finally given. Seize that opportunity to market yourself, get in front of it, proactively post those prices. Know what your case costs are, and you eliminate all the negativity of that whole financial discussion