Site to let patients price care

Site to let patients price care

Monday, September 03, 2007

By Christina Hildreth
Jackson Citizen Patriot

childreth@citpat.com -- 768-4924

Most of us wouldn't buy a car or major appliance without shopping around, but we rarely compare costs when it comes to shelling out big bucks for health-care services.

That could be because there's no easy way to comparison shop for health care -- it's not like the Sunday newspaper is full advertisements touting sales on heart transplants or dialysis treatments.

To rectify that situation, the state hospital association plans to launch a Web site that would let consumers "shop."

The Michigan Health and Hospital Association, which is constructing the Web site, hopes to launch it by January.

Though experts say comparing costs for health-care services won't catch on immediately with consumers, it will have an effect on the system.

"We do think it's good," said Kerry Colligan, director of marketing and planning at Chelsea Community Hospital. "Allowing potential patients to make those comparisons gives people an opportunity to see how health care works and see differences between hospitals."

Several industry experts said information like this is particularly important nowadays, when more health-care costs are getting passed along to consumers.

Prices on the Web site won't be exact -- negotiations between insurance companies and hospitals often mean different prices for different payers. But listing Medicare reimbursement prices at least is a step in the right direction to demystifying the economics of health care, Colligan said.

"This is a first step in helping people understand what's going on," he said. "It's not at all a magic bullet."

Georgia Fojtasek, Foote Health System president and chief executive, said she doesn't expect the site to draw business away from Foote.

"I certainly think that Foote is cost and quality competitive," she said. "I think it's just going to make all of us really be able to focus more on making sure that we're providing care from the customer's perspective."

But don't expect Michiganians to consult the Web site for every health-care need. Patients having a heart attack probably won't surf the Net to see which emergency room is cheaper, said Dean Smith, a professor of health management and policy at the University of Michigan's School of Public Health.

"They won't be shopping around for CT scans as a specific item either," he said.

In fact, there's a great possibility the site won't have a huge effect on patient behavior, Smith said, because patients don't want to have to drive far from home for care.

"Location, location, location. Those are the first three things that matter," Smith said.

But it's still going to have a positive effect on Michigan's health-care system, he said, because hospitals will work to improve their quality and price scores.

Smith said studies of health-care quality score reporting in other areas revealed patients didn't always make decisions based on their research. But facilities acted as if they did.

"When you measure something and it's visible, people try to be better on it," he said.

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