A new report from Trilliant Health found that Americans are paying widely varying amounts for the same healthcare procedure. In an interview with Scripps News, Ho discusses why prices are so inconsistent, adding that transparent pricing information on health care could help drive prices down.
Many Americans are paying hundreds, even thousands of dollars more for healthcare than necessary, and routine doctor visits are sometimes followed by unexpected high bills. Ho, chair of Health Economics at Rice University’s Baker Institute, has researched these fees, finding key developments that are adverse to consumers.
“Five years ago, urgent care centers offered lower prices. The problem is that healthcare systems are acquiring these centers and adding facility fees,” Ho said. “And they’re expanding their reach even further into the suburbs so they can charge higher prices to even more people because their pricing power just becomes stronger, the larger they get. And the public does not understand it.”
A new report by the Commonwealth Fund has revealed the states with the best and worst health care systems, based on 50 different measures. Texas was ranked as the state with the second-worst health care system.
Vivian Ho, chair in health economics at Rice University, explained to Newsweek how support lent to public health systems, cost control, and policy choices made by state leaders — such as whether to expand Medicare under the Affordable Care Act — all factor into a state's respective rankings.
“The American public doesn't understand that consolidated healthcare systems are charging prices that earn them extraordinary profits, which raises the costs of employer-provided health insurance," she said. "That's why so many Americans have to rely on Obamacare or Medicaid for health insurance, or go without coverage at all. Shopping for healthcare has become extremely complicated, and I blame employers for not being more aggressive in designing benefits for their workers that exercise better price sensitivity.”
Despite federal rules, most Oregon hospitals still fail to provide clear, usable pricing info — leaving patients in the dark. Health economist Vivian Ho notes many systems "technically comply" while withholding prices for services patients actually need. Transparency exists in name, not in practice.
Numerous federal health programs face deep funding cuts under a draft budget reported by The Washington Post and others. According to Ho, Americans would feel some of the impacts from slashing HHS funding right away, and promising interventions for heart disease, cancer and mental health issues might all be in jeopardy if the funding is cut. Ho said it’s hard to convince the general public of the importance of funding medical research that might feel “intangible” when people see lower taxes as a benefit to their pocketbooks.
“But you don't realize you actually may be cutting off the funding that would save your grandchild,” Ho said.