Abstract
A recent mandate by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) required hospitals to publish prices online. This study examined the utility of CMS-mandated price estimators for dermatology procedures. Chargemasters and price-estimator tools from the five largest hospitals in each state (n = 250) were reviewed for accessibility. Price estimators were also searched for the presence of dermatologic procedures and their estimated prices. Of the 250 hospitals included, 89.6% of chargemasters and 92.8% of price estimators were accessible. Of the available chargemasters and price estimators, 98.7% and 63.8% contained pricing data on dermatologic procedures, respectively. The most common dermatology procedures listed were debridement of subcutaneous tissue (CPT 11042) with a median price of $1,135.50 (IQR $577-$3533.67; n = 80), followed by simple incision and drainage of skin abscess (CPT 10060) with a median price of $956.00 (IQR $465.50-$6506.00, n = 79), and single punch biopsy of skin (CPT 11104) with a median price of $506.06 (IQR $356.50-$922.08, n = 29). Although price estimator tools are widely available in patient-friendly and searchable formats, they are not optimized for shoppable dermatologic services. Adding more dermatologic procedures to patient-friendly price-estimator tools can help patients directly realize savings from price shopping.
References
National Health Expenditure Data. https://www.cms.gov/Research-Statistics-Data-and-Systems/Statistics-Trends-and-Reports/NationalHealthExpendData/NationalHealthAccountsHistorical
Executive Order 13877 of June 24, 2019: Improving Price and Quality Transparency in American Healthcare to Put Patients First. https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2019/06/27/2019-13945/improving-price-and-quality-transparency-in-american-healthcare-to-put-patients-first
Desai SM, Hatfield LA, Hicks AL, Chernew ME, Mehrotra A, Sinaiko AD (2019) What are the potential savings from steering patients to lower-priced providers? a static analysis. Am J Manag Care 25(7):e204–e210
Gourevitch RA, Desai S, Hicks AL, Hatfield LA, Chernew ME, Mehrotra (2017) A Who Uses a Price Transparency Tool? Implications for Increasing Consumer Engagement. Inquiry. 1 (54) 46958017709104
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by K.Y, L.D, S.G, and B.K. The first draft of the manuscript was written by K.Y and L.D and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The authors have no conflicts of interest or funding to declare.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Yang, K., Drake, L., Ghatnekar, S. et al. Evaluating hospital consumer-friendly price-estimator tools for shoppable services within dermatology. Arch Dermatol Res 315, 1813–1821 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00403-023-02527-3
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00403-023-02527-3