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Posts tagged patients
Retail newcomers are great for healthcare, but bad for health systems

By Pamela J. Gallagher

Patients have been begging for affordability for decades, and the healthcare industry’s reluctance to innovate and adapt to patient demands has left a door open for retailers to move into the healthcare business. I believe this will be great for healthcare, but potentially disastrous for health systems.

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Charges are irrelevant to the patient’s bottom line

By Pamela J. Gallagher

With increased calls for healthcare pricing transparency from consumers and government entities alike, hospitals’ chargemasters are moving from proprietary information to public knowledge.  However, putting chargemasters under the microscope has not led to the clarity that patients are seeking regarding quality care at a price they can afford. 

Nearly two-thirds of physician respondents in a 2019 NEJM Catalyst survey said that patients do not have enough information to affect the cost of their own healthcare–related decisions, and more than three-quarters of respondents say that assessing the total cost of care is extremely challenging for patients.

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