Note: This event is a follow up to an October 18th event focused on price transparency that was convened by the UCSF Center for Healthcare Value and held at the UCSF Mission Bay campus. Read related news story at UCSF.edu.
Experts discussed the thorny issue of price transparency in health care -- including the possibility of seeking legislation to align hospital prices in California -- at a forum in Sacramento on December 9, 2013.
"Price transparency is leading to more cost containment," said moderator Maribeth Shannon, director of the California HealthCare Foundation's Market and Policy Monitor program. CHCF, which sponsored the event, "Inside the Black Box: The Future of Price Transparency in California," publishes California Healthline.
"I do think price transparency is leading to lower costs at hospitals," Shannon said. "And it's also leading to providers becoming more efficient, and this is the first time we're seeing this."
In 2011, the California Public Employees' Retirement System, the second largest buyer of health care in the country after the federal government, started a reference-pricing program that set standard prices for medical procedures, such as knee replacements, as well as some medications and services. According to a report last week from the Center for Studying Health System Change, CalPERS saved about $3 million over the past two years.
Read more at CaliforniaHealthLine.org.