Jackson Health unveils limited price transparency initiative

The Miami area's biggest safety-net provider will roll out a price transparency initiative, but its chief executive officer is unsure what the impact will be for the wider market.

In an interview with the Miami Herald, Jackson Health System CEO Carlos Migoya said the system will endeavor to get patients price quotes for a variety of procedures within 48 hours of a request being made.

The service, known as Care Quote, is, like many price transparency initiatives embraced by hospitals, highly limited. Patients can ask about diagnostics, minor outpatient procedures or maternity care. And, according to Migoya, the quotes are only available to insured patients regarding their out-of-pocket and total costs.

Few hospitals in the United States provide prices at all. A  report by the Health Care Incentives Improvement Institute and Catalyst for Payment Reform, only seven out of 50 states receive passing grades for their price transparency rules and initiatives.

The emergence of the price transparency services comes as many of Florida's hospitals have come under a microscope for their pricing and business practices. Forty percent of the nation's hospitals with the highest markup in charges versus costs are in the Sunshine State, according to data from the University of Miami and Florida International University. Nevertheless, the airing of this information has done nothing to chasten those hospitals to cut their prices.

Migoya told the Miami Herald that he hoped the service would pressure other providers to follow suit. “If I were the consumer and I got a price from Jackson and I wanted to see what someone else would be doing, I go to that other provider and say, ‘If I go to Jackson, this is what it will cost me. What is it going to cost from you?’” he said.