The role of healthcare journalists is immense as they are the ones who take a prominent role in spreading health news. Health is an important topic nowadays, and after the coronavirus pandemic hit the world, health has become even more critical.
Healthcare journalists become aware of several health issues by interacting with people, watching television shows, and participating in health discussion forums. Healthcare journalists focus on price transparency, the latest and most crucial topic ever discussed.
What is price transparency in healthcare?
Price transparency is simply the A-Z pricing information given to patients before seeking care. Sounds simple? Well, it is not that easy.
Price transparency is a heated topic in healthcare. After immense research, policymakers, journalists, medical professionals, and patient advocates have discovered that this lack of price transparency is the cause of increased healthcare expenses and deters consumers from seeking care. However, some of you might need to be made aware of the concept, but our job is to educate the consumers.
Transparent healthcare must involve a similar price chart for all health conditions and help patients become more aware of their sources and understand the price most simply. Furthermore, with clear information about the costs, consumers can choose the best services.
Price transparency is a much-debated topic, as many hospitals need to comply with the rules. However, the CMS in 2019 laid down the regulations that hospitals must publish an eco-friendly list of prices of at least 300 shoppable services on their websites. Indeed a tremendous humanistic step towards a better healthcare service!
Healthcare journalist and price transparency
Association of Healthcare Journalists is the first journalistic approach towards price transparency. As a result, numerous journalists have started writing and propagating a lot about price transparency in healthcare.
As journalism is more of a social worker, healthcare journalists are keen on providing healthcare information. These healthcare journalists have indeed played a key role, especially during the initial days of the Covid crisis. Since then, people have been worried about healthcare services’ hidden costs. It is sad but true that most of us never get transparent health costs and benefits.
Healthcare journalists are excited to pick up social issues, just like price transparency in healthcare. Recently, there has been a lot of fuss regarding price transparency, and most of us didn’t even know what a transparent price would be. Therefore, healthcare journalists found it quite exciting to discover this issue.
Well, it is also the demand of the mass that makes healthcare journalists write about such issues. Recent trends show that internet users primarily search for topics related to healthcare. The coronavirus pandemic has made this search more intense.
ZeaMed has taken this noble step in providing citizens with complete data on price transparency in the USA. In addition, they have provided region and state-wise analysis of healthcare prices on their website. This information would help readers to be more informed about healthcare prices nearby.
Awaiting a much-needed Price Transparency
Recent reports show that most hospitals still need to comply with the rules of CMS. However, it is time to lift the veil by aiming toward a system of healthcare where prices would be regulated and made more consumer-friendly.
Health journalists are coming up with exciting findings related to the issue of transparency. It takes little time to bring in a revolution or a change. People need to be thorough about what the issue is all about. Along with this, all healthcare stakeholders must work together to solve this hidden cost problem.
Price transparency could save the world by regulating the price of the services and helps for easy comparison. Moreover, if price transparency is enabled and made famous, it will gradually reduce the cost of medical services as providers will face tough competition.
It is a healthcare journalist’s professional and moral responsibility to make people aware of healthcare transparency. Writing and researching price transparency would open new dimensions for health professionals, entrepreneurs, and consumers. In addition, the clarity in healthcare prices can lead to increased access to care and reduce healthcare disparities.
References
https://healthjournalism.org/blog/2016/09/a-look-at-the-landscape-in-health-care-price-transparency/