Charges for Shoppable Musculoskeletal Imaging Examinations: CMS Transparency Compliance and Variability Among 250...

Area of Science:

• Health policy
• Healthcare economics
• Medical imaging

Background:

• The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services mandated hospital price transparency for shoppable services starting January 2021.
• This includes consumer-friendly displays for specific healthcare services, such as musculoskeletal imaging.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess hospital compliance with price transparency requirements for musculoskeletal imaging services.
• To analyze the variability in charges for these services.

Main Methods:

• A review of charge data for four musculoskeletal imaging examinations was conducted.
• 250 U.S. hospitals were selected for analysis.
• Compliance with consumer-friendly display requirements was assessed.

Main Results:

• All 250 hospitals published charges for the selected imaging examinations.
• However, 21% failed to provide these charges in a consumer-friendly format.
• Compliant hospitals generally had higher bed counts than noncompliant ones.
• Charges for the four examinations showed significant variability, with a 73.8-fold difference.

Conclusions:

• While hospitals are publishing charges, a significant portion are not meeting consumer-friendly display standards.
• Wide price disparities for essential imaging services persist, potentially hindering informed patient decision-making.
• Further efforts are needed to ensure effective implementation of healthcare price transparency regulations.