Cancer care became more affordable after federal price transparency regulations took effect in 2021, according to a study published Jan. 21 in Value in Health.
Donald Trump recently issued an executive order aimed at strengthening price transparency enforcement for hospitals and health plans. The order could require hospitals and health systems to disclose and standardize pricing information.
For this study, researchers from New York City-based Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and San Diego-based Turquoise Health analyzed nationwide hospital price transparency data from December 2021 to June 202. The analysis covered 89 billing codes across four cancer service categories: inpatient, chemotherapy administration, radiation and surgery.
Here are three things to know from the study:
- Data was collected from 11,290 negotiated rate groups and 349,990 monthly observations across 228 hospitals.
- For every 10-percentage-point increase in code-level transparency, there was a 0.82-percentage-point annual reduction in commercial oncology prices.
- After the regulations were implemented, price convergence between high- and low-priced hospitals occurred at a rate of 21.2 percentage points per year.
Price changes and convergence varied by service category, payer and hospital size, the study authors wrote.
Read the full study here.
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