Amid patients' desire for price transparency, it is even more crucial that hospitals ensure the accuracy of their chargemaster before they provide patients with price estimates.
That's according to Brad Josephson, director of marketing and communications at PMMC, a provider of healthcare revenue cycle management software and contract management services, who penned a recent web post on the issue.
In the post, published by Medical Tourism Magazine, Mr. Josephson said providers should ask:
1. Is contract data accurate? Data in hospital-payer contracts helps determine a hospital's chargemaster rates and is used to show the reasoning behind the rates. If data is not accurate, hospitals will face challenges in providing accurate financial estimates that are meaningful to the patient, said Mr. Josephson.
2. Are the hospital's charges competitive within the local market? Once accurate data is established, hospitals should ensure chargemaster rates are competitive within the state and local market, Mr. Josephson said. "To be certain that your organization's charges stay competitive, it's important that the revenue integrity team knows how and when to conduct their annual reviews," he wrote. "From a best-practices standpoint, these reviews should occur annually before your new fiscal year to ensure that the charges you're comparing against the market are accurate and up-to-date."
3. How can I adjust my charges and remain revenue-neutral? Mr. Josephson said hospitals seek to remain revenue-neutral as they review and adjust chargemaster rates, meaning changes to the chargemaster won't negatively affect revenue. He said this "involves the revenue integrity team examining a total chargemaster list of all their charges … to determine where they can lower or raise their charges while remaining revenue neutral." He recommended organizations use software tools to strategically adjust charges as part of that process.
Access Mr. Josephson's full post here.