TAFP tells Senate committee that health care transparency should include smart card technology

On July 26, the Senate Committee on State Affairs heard testimony from health plans, hospitals, provider groups and business groups on the latest fad in health care cost containment schemes – transparency, a term that seems to have a different meaning for each party involved. Business groups and insurers define transparency as public disclosure of provider health care prices plus performance ratings on certain quality indicators in hopes that patients will shop for the best value. Physician groups would like transparency to mean that the patient’s insurance information is available at the point of service, making clear what will and what will not be covered. Throw into the mix the issues of hospital chargemasters, billed charges versus negotiated rates, how quality is measured and who does the measuring, and the transparency debate becomes quite opaque.

Concerns over soaring health care costs have put the issue high on the priority list as the next legislative session draws near. TAFP provided testimony to the committee to describe the economic anomalies that cause the health care marketplace to be immune from the usual legislative market remedies, concepts like price inelasticity, which holds that when you’re in desperate need, price ceases to matter. Committee chairman Robert Duncan (R-Lubbock) put it this way: “If I’m going to have heart surgery, I’m not going to shop. I’m going to call my doctor and say ‘Who’s the best surgeon in town?’ and I’m going to go to him.”

In its testimony, TAFP suggested that insurance “smart cards” are a path to transparency, reducing the confusion about what’s covered by health plans. By implementing smart card technology, patients and physicians could have the insurance information they need to make the right decisions about care before medical services are provided.

“Being on the front lines of primary care gives family physicians a unique perspective that too often is lost in the health care economics debate,” TAFP said in its testimony. “Patients need high-quality, well-integrated and coordinated care. To ensure that they receive this care, we must shore up and streamline our health care system so that ever-increasing cost and inefficiency doesn’t continue to cripple it. We believe that properly defined and implemented ‘transparency’ tools like insurance smart cards can help patients, providers and health care payers do just that.”

Read TAFP’s testimony presented to the Senate Committee on State Affairs on July 26, 2006.