Oregon hospital costs website updated with new data
The Oregon Association of Hospitals and Health Systems announced Monday that new price data for common hospital procedures is available on its OregonHospitalGuide.org website.
The new pricing data, based on state reporting, shows the costs for the most common inpatient and outpatient procedures for every hospital in the state, and allows potential patients to compare pricing on specific procedures between hospitals.
The Oregon Hospital Guide website enabled Oregon to continue to receive a “B” grade on the influential Price Transparency and Physician Quality Report Card developed by the Altarum’s Center for Payment Innovation (formerly the Health Care Incentives Improvement Institute) and Catalyst for Payment Reform (CPR). This moved Oregon up from an “F” from prior years and ranks our state above most every other state in the nation.
“Hospitals are leading the way in our state to ensure that Oregonians have the tools to make informed health care decisions – including cost factors,” said Andy Van Pelt, executive vice president of OAHHS. “We are proud that our work on price transparency continues to keep Oregon in the forefront of this issue nationwide.”
The new data on costs shows the median amount paid by commercial insurers, including patient-paid amounts like deductibles and co-pays. The website also shows the statewide median price for each procedure.
On OregonHospitalGuide.org, consumers and patients can find the new data under “procedure costs,” searching by hospital. The website is the result of proactive work in 2015 by OAHHS. That effort led to the passage of legislation mandating the state to produce the procedure cost data from its All Payer All Claims Database.
Other data on OregonHospitalGuide.org includes:
Contact information and direct links to hospital billing and financial assistance policies; Searchable quality of care data reported by the federal government; Key indicators in graph form for individual hospitals including operating margins, payer mix, and uncompensated care in percentage and dollars; and Key indicators for comparing one or more hospitals including: Average length of stay, average daily census, occupancy rate, surgery mix, and FTEs per adjusted occupied bed.
“Oregon hospitals will continue their commitment to a high level of transparency, enabling patients to make data-driven decisions along with their health care providers,” Monday’s announcement said. For that reason, every Oregon hospital has also pledged to provide cost estimates for scheduled hospital services within three business days, in addition to the cost data posted on OregonHospitalGuide.org
Despite all the tools for comparison and research OregonHospitalGuide.org provides, the association said the best way for patients to make informed health care decisions is still in consultation with their medical professional team.
