In the United States, the chargemaster, also known as charge master, or charge description master (CDM), is a comprehensive listing of items billable to a hospital patient or a patient's health insurance provider. In practice, it usually contains highly inflated prices at several times that of actual costs to the hospital. [1] [2] [3] The chargemaster typically serves as the starting point for negotiations with patients and health insurance providers of what amount of money will actually be paid to the hospital. It is described as "the central mechanism of the revenue cycle" of a hospital.
The chargemaster may be alternatively referred to as the "charge master", "hospital chargemaster", or the "charge description master" (CDM). [4] [5] It is a comprehensive listing of items billable to a hospital patient or a patient's health insurance provider. [3] [6] It is described as "the central mechanism of the revenue cycle" of a hospital. [7] Chargemasters include thousands of hospital services, medical procedures, equipment fees, drugs, supplies, and diagnostic evaluations such as imaging and blood tests. [6] Each item in the chargemaster is assigned a unique identifier code and a set price that are used to generate patient bills. [6] Every hospital system maintains its own chargemaster. [6] Traditionally, hospitals regarded their chargemaster, alongside the medical codes that catalogue the billing items, as a trade secret that is central to their business, and state laws and courts have historically accepted the view that these are proprietary information. [8] [9]
The procedure of developing, maintaining, and monitoring the chargemaster and its pricing scheme often necessitates multiple hospital employees working under the supervision of a "chargemaster coordinator", [10] [11] a "charge master manager", or others in the health care system's operations or administrative support areas frequently called a "charge master team".[ citation needed ] Ultimate responsibility for ensuring accuracy of the chargemaster rests with each hospital's chief financial officer, [12] compliance officer, and hospital Board.[ citation needed ] Approximately forty percent of hospitals pay outside companies to help create and then adapt their chargemasters on a yearly basis. [11] According to Essentials of Managed Health Care, as of 2012 the chargemaster file typically included between 20,000 and 50,000 price definitions. [13] [14] The Lewin Group analyzed utilization of the chargemaster and found that a low proportion of hospitals carried out regular reviews of their chargemaster implementation. [15] Costs for patients maintained on the chargemaster differ greatly from hospital to hospital. [16]
Authors J. Patrick Rooney and Dan Perrin note in their book America's Health Care Crisis Solved , "Charge-master rates, in reality, serve as nothing more than the starting point for negotiations" with the payer. [17] The impact of the chargemaster is such that those with good insurance or better access to means to afford quality healthcare pay the least for that care, whereas conversely uninsured, and others who pay out-of-pocket for healthcare pay the full chargemaster listed price for the same services. [18] [19]
Federally all hospitals are now required to post their chargemaster on the hospital website. [20]
Hospital price transparency helps Americans know the cost of a hospital item or service before receiving it. Starting January 1, 2021, each hospital operating in the United States will be required to provide clear, accessible pricing information online about the items and services they provide in two ways.[ citation needed ]
In California, a regulation known as the "Payers' Bill of Rights" (which is unique to the state) requires all hospitals to provide their chargemaster to the state, which then posts them online for the public. [6] [21]
The chargemaster procedure is generally only regulated in Maryland; author Peter Reid Kongstvedt notes in Essentials of Managed Care, "Of particular importance, other than in Maryland, hospitals are generally free to charge whatever they want in their chargemaster." [14]
Chargemasters gained national attention in early 2013, when in short succession, there were two important publications made. First, there was a Time magazine cover story published February 20, 2013, titled "Bitter Pill: Why Medical Bills Are Killing Us", [3] in which reporter Steven Brill examined the overlooked role that chargemasters played in the American health care system's cost crisis, asserting that they routinely listed extremely high prices "devoid of any calculation related to cost", and were generally regarded as "fiction" in the healthcare industry, despite their significant role in setting prices for both insured and uninsured patients alike. [3] Then, a couple months later, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services published inpatient prices for hospitals across the country in a publicly available format. [22]
"The 'full charges' reflected on hospital Charge Masters are unconscionable", wrote George A. Nation III in a 2005 piece for the Kentucky Law Journal. [23] Health care economist scholar Uwe Reinhardt noted in a 2006 article for Health Affairs that the approach to chargemasters by hospitals would have to be modified to become more transparent, in order to encourage a form of consumer-driven health care to help improve the system. [24] University of California, Berkeley professor of health economics James C. Robinson pointed out prior criticism of the chargemaster, "Much ink has been spilt bemoaning that incomprehensible foundation of hospital cost accounting and prices, the redoubtable chargemaster." [25] Robinson called for greater transparency as well as increased price standardization as steps to help remedy the situation. [25]
In a 2007 article for Health Affairs, Gerard F. Anderson observed, "Without knowing what services they will use in advance, it is impossible for patients to comparison shop." [26] Anderson also noted the esoteric nature of the language on the chargemaster made it difficult for patients and anyone other than hospital administrators to understand. [26] Anderson emphasized the difficulty of patients' ability to interpret the chargemaster in a subsequent 2012 article: "Furthermore, most of the items on the charge master file are written in code so that only the hospital administrators and a few experts in the field can interpret their meanings." [27]
The Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) is an act of the United States Congress, passed in 1986 as part of the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA). It requires hospital emergency departments that accept payments from Medicare to provide an appropriate medical screening examination (MSE) to anyone seeking treatment for a medical condition, regardless of citizenship, legal status, or ability to pay. Participating hospitals may not transfer or discharge patients needing emergency treatment except with the informed consent or stabilization of the patient or when their condition requires transfer to a hospital better equipped to administer the treatment.
In the United States, Medicaid is a government program that provides health insurance for adults and children with limited income and resources. The program is partially funded and primarily managed by state governments, which also have wide latitude in determining eligibility and benefits, but the federal government sets baseline standards for state Medicaid programs and provides a significant portion of their funding.
Medicare is a government national health insurance program in the United States, begun in 1965 under the Social Security Administration (SSA) and now administered by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). It primarily provides health insurance for Americans aged 65 and older, but also for some younger people with disability status as determined by the SSA, including people with end stage renal disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
Health insurance or medical insurance is a type of insurance that covers the whole or a part of the risk of a person incurring medical expenses. As with other types of insurance, risk is shared among many individuals. By estimating the overall risk of health risk and health system expenses over the risk pool, an insurer can develop a routine finance structure, such as a monthly premium or payroll tax, to provide the money to pay for the health care benefits specified in the insurance agreement. The benefit is administered by a central organization, such as a government agency, private business, or not-for-profit entity.
Medical billing is a payment practice within the United States healthcare system. The process involves the systematic submission and processing of healthcare claims for reimbursement. Once the services are provided, the healthcare provider creates a detailed record of the patient's visit, including the diagnoses, procedures performed, and any medications prescribed. This information is translated into standardized codes using the appropriate coding system, such as ICD-10-CM or Current Procedural Terminology codes—this part of the process is known as medical coding. These coded records are submitted by medical billing to the health insurance company or the payer, along with the patient's demographic and insurance information. Most insurance companies use a similar process, whether they are private companies or government sponsored programs. The insurance company reviews the claim, verifying the medical necessity and coverage eligibility based on the patient's insurance plan. If the claim is approved, the insurance company processes the payment, either directly to the healthcare provider or as a reimbursement to the patient. The healthcare provider may need to following up on and appealing claims.
The term managed care or managed healthcare is used in the United States to describe a group of activities intended to reduce the cost of providing health care and providing American health insurance while improving the quality of that care. It has become the predominant system of delivering and receiving American health care since its implementation in the early 1980s, and has been largely unaffected by the Affordable Care Act of 2010.
...intended to reduce unnecessary health care costs through a variety of mechanisms, including: economic incentives for physicians and patients to select less costly forms of care; programs for reviewing the medical necessity of specific services; increased beneficiary cost sharing; controls on inpatient admissions and lengths of stay; the establishment of cost-sharing incentives for outpatient surgery; selective contracting with health care providers; and the intensive management of high-cost health care cases. The programs may be provided in a variety of settings, such as Health Maintenance Organizations and Preferred Provider Organizations.
Health care prices in the United States of America describe market and non-market factors that determine pricing, along with possible causes as to why prices are higher than in other countries.
The Massachusetts health care reform, commonly referred to as Romneycare, was a healthcare reform law passed in 2006 and signed into law by Governor Mitt Romney with the aim of providing health insurance to nearly all of the residents of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
This article discusses the definitions and types of home medical equipment (HME), also known as durable medical equipment (DME), and durable medical equipment prosthetics and orthotics (DMEPOS).
In the United States, health insurance helps pay for medical expenses through privately purchased insurance, social insurance, or a social welfare program funded by the government. Synonyms for this usage include "health coverage", "health care coverage", and "health benefits". In a more technical sense, the term "health insurance" is used to describe any form of insurance providing protection against the costs of medical services. This usage includes both private insurance programs and social insurance programs such as Medicare, which pools resources and spreads the financial risk associated with major medical expenses across the entire population to protect everyone, as well as social welfare programs like Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program, which both provide assistance to people who cannot afford health coverage.
Healthcare reform in the United States has a long history. Reforms have often been proposed but have rarely been accomplished. In 2010, landmark reform was passed through two federal statutes: the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), signed March 23, 2010, and the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010, which amended the PPACA and became law on March 30, 2010.
In the United States, health insurance coverage is provided by several public and private sources. During 2019, the U.S. population overall was approximately 330 million, with 59 million people 65 years of age and over covered by the federal Medicare program. The 273 million non-institutionalized persons under age 65 either obtained their coverage from employer-based or non-employer based sources, or were uninsured. During the year 2019, 89% of the non-institutionalized population had health insurance coverage. Separately, approximately 12 million military personnel received coverage through the Veteran's Administration and Military Health System.
In a series of class action lawsuits, uninsured patients alleged that several of California's largest hospital chains imposed exorbitant fees for medical care and engaged in price gouging. Under settlements reached in cases in 2006-2008, almost a million patients received refunds or bill adjustments, and millions more benefited from reduced prices for future medical care. These hospital cases returned almost $1 billion to patients.
Cost-shifting is an economic situation where one individual, group, or government underpays for a service, resulting in another individual, group, or government overpaying for a service. It can occur when one group pays a smaller share of costs than before, resulting in another group paying a larger share of costs than before. Some commentators on health policy in the United States believe the former currently happens in Medicare and Medicaid as they underpay for services resulting in private insurers overpaying. Although the term cost shift is used in the field of healthcare these days and there are many studies about it, other fields have more or less used it. For example, its origins go back to the environmental economy where cost-shifting referred to the practice where corporations pass the harmful consequences and negative externalities of economic production to third parties and communities whether those that are part of the production circuit or are in some way beneficiaries or those that are outside this circle, K.W. Kapp, is one who coined the concept. This concept is also used in the American legal system, especially since the cost of electronic discovery has increased dramatically due to a large amount of raw information and the urgent need to extract relevant data, its processing, and analysis. In the past, each of the plaintiffs and defendants had to bear the cost, but later many of those who prepared the summons demanded the transfer of the cost because they thought they would have to pay for something they did not do. In this regard, some courts have agreed to shift part of the costs to the complainant.
There were a number of different health care reforms proposed during the Obama administration. Key reforms address cost and coverage and include obesity, prevention and treatment of chronic conditions, defensive medicine or tort reform, incentives that reward more care instead of better care, redundant payment systems, tax policy, rationing, a shortage of doctors and nurses, intervention vs. hospice, fraud, and use of imaging technology, among others.
Healthcare in the United States is largely provided by private sector healthcare facilities, and paid for by a combination of public programs, private insurance, and out-of-pocket payments. The U.S. is the only developed country without a system of universal healthcare, and a significant proportion of its population lacks health insurance.
Balance billing, sometimes called surprise billing, is a medical bill from a healthcare provider billing a patient for the difference between the total cost of services being charged and the amount the insurance pays. It is a pervasive problem in the United States with providers who are out of network, and therefore not subject to the rates or terms of providers who are in-network. Balance billing has a variable prevalence by market and specialty.
Health care finance in the United States discusses how Americans obtain and pay for their healthcare, and why U.S. healthcare costs are the highest in the world based on various measures.
The 340B Drug Pricing Program is a US federal government program created in 1992 that requires drug manufacturers to provide outpatient drugs to eligible health care organizations and covered entities at significantly reduced prices. The intent of the program is to allow covered entities to "stretch scarce federal resources as far as possible, reaching more eligible patients and providing more comprehensive services." Maintaining services and lowering medication costs for patients is consistent with the purpose of the program, which is named for the section authorizing it in the Public Health Service Act (PHSA) It was enacted by Congress as part of a larger bill signed into law by President George H. W. Bush.
MDsave is a healthcare ecommerce company co-located in Brentwood, Tennessee, and San Francisco, California.
