Earlier this week, the U.S. House introduced The “Lower Costs, More Transparency Act”, which encompasses the contentious Imaging Services Price Transparency Act. The act aims to enhance transparency in imaging exam costs. However, many in the radiology community, including the American College of Radiology (ACR), have raised concerns about its emphasis on pricing, potentially overlooking the crucial elements of quality and expertise.
To delve deeper into this topic, we turned to Shannon Wilson, an expert in the field and a Past President of the Radiology Business Management Association, for her perspective:
“While I certainly understand the desire to assist patients in their healthcare journey and taking the guesswork out of the expenses associated with their treatment, forcing hospitals and other entities to publish prices is not the best course of action to aid in the decision making process for imaging exams.
“There are numerous considerations when pricing any one exam. Who are they insured by, what is their specific plan and benefits associated with that plan for diagnostic imaging? These are major factors that affect price.
“It is easy to publish a self pay price and move on but for most insured patients this is not an accurate depiction of their true out of pocket expense.
“I am not sure what they are trying to accomplish with this bill but I wish they would join us for a day of education surrounding the intricacies of imaging pricing. Slapping pricing for 50 diagnostic imaging exams on your website is not helping patients “shop” for the best imaging facility when there are so many factors to consider. Price being just one of them. We can and should do better for our patients.”
To understand the full implications of this proposed legislation, explore the Radiology Business article linked here!