SENATOR GRATWICK PRESENTS RECOMMENDATIONS FROM COMMISSION TO INCREASE TRANSPARENCY IN HEALTHCARE COSTS

Proposal would expose the hidden costs of health care

AUGUSTA –Yesterday, Democratic Senator Geoff Gratwick of Bangor introduced a measure to increase transparency in health care costs. The legislation is a result of a special study commission to explore the transparency of hospital billing and increase public access to hospital financial information and health care costs.

“When you go to the doctor or hospital, you should know beforehand what the costs are likely to be,” said Senator Gratwick, a practicing physician and Senate chair of the commission. “Knowing prices up front allows us to be better consumers of health care. You can’t manage what you can’t measure.”

Senator Gratwick’s bill would provide patients with a critical tool for managing their health care costs by allowing patients to determine how much an elective procedure would cost and allow them to compare the costs of hospitals and providers.

Senator Gratwick sponsored legislation to create the commission partly as a result of a report by Time Magazine that revealed exorbitant medical costs hidden in bills from hospitals in Maine and other states. One cancer patient was charged $77 for a box of gauze; another patient with pneumonia was charged $134 for a $5 bag of saline.

A recent federal report found that there is significant variation in prices for the same medical procedures at different hospitals. Here in Maine, the report noted that the average price of pneumonia treatment is $20,058 at York Hospital, but only $5,402 at Northern Maine Medical Center in Fort Kent.

The legislation proposed by the Commission to Study Transparency, Costs and Accountability of Health Care System Financing will be reviewed by the Insurance and Financial Services and the Health and Human Services Committees later this session.

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