ANNOUNCEMENT and Q&A: Jordan Johnson Webinar on Price Transparency

[Neuronix]

Hi rad onc crew,

I think we have all been very interested in the Twitter posts by Jordan Johnson (Mandated Price Transparency: Should Those in Glass Houses Throw Stones?). One of our SDN users had a great suggestion for a webinar presentation to explain the basics of the price transparency mandate and what we know so far. Jordan Johnson agreed to host the webinar!

So next week we are planning for a Zoom presentation on price transparency hosted by Jordan Johnson.

Tuesday 1/26/21 @ 6pm Central Time
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82951015604?pwd=Wm8xQ3EzZ0RlM3ZSb3pqUEcxNkdVZz09

Thursday 1/28/21 @4pm Central Time (encore/repeat session)
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83087946297?pwd=OTBFcXBqRzFrTGlKMmN6VnhEajJ5QT09

In the meantime, please post any questions about price transparency or suggestions for the webinar in this thread. Jordan will be reading and will hopefully answer your questions.

This thread is for serious business only, and will be tightly moderated. You are more than welcome to have side discussions on this topic in the thread linked above.

Thanks,
Neuronix

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[OTN]

Can someone with a Twitter account make sure this webinar gets to the correct "financial toxicity influencers"?

 

[Neuronix]

Bumping to the top. See updated post above for session info. No need for pre-registration.

 

[BobbyHeenan]

Excuse my rambling (trying to push this out in between a busy clinic).

1. I would really like to see the breakdown for a Blue Cross or Humana or whatever patient for the full course (say 20 fractions) treatment for prostate IMRT at UPenn versus any other place with a linac in Philadelphia. I would like to see what the insurance pays, but also the patients out of pocket costs.

The difficulty here is my patients often ask just for their "out of pocket" costs....so many times patients only care about that out of pocket cost. We should all care about the other costs, but that one has immediacy when patients are making their decisions. Typically I have these most of the time for prostate patients that have the time to make a decision (think favorable int risk deciding between IMRT, SBRT, or protons).

2. We have to be careful about not under valuing our care - as this could all be a race to the bottom of reimbursement. We (or at least I) feel some bitterness about Choosing Wisely fraction shaming while seeing these costs at the centers that authored Choosing Wisely. Some arent, but I'm willing to accept that care in some (but not all) situations/disease sites/locations is better than a community cancer center, but if the community cancer center had reimbursement like UPenn, then maybe they could afford to pay extra staff, fancy toys, etc. So it's a chicken/egg situation. And what if it's just marginally better in some cases but not all?

So my question is - with this new data, what do we advocate for in terms of:
- patients
- your own cancer center
- the field

Big questions, but it can't be as simple as "cancer center X is getting paid too much"....or is it? I'm biased here, but really all my initial reaction is once again the "misanthropes" on SDN were right all along - many of these big cancer centers are charging crazy insane high prices while publishing/advocating "cost effectiveness" studies that completely ignore the major variable - the actual price of their service - not just the medicare listed price.


* I edited a comment above regarding quality, I was painting with too broad a brush previously*

 

[Neuronix]

Reminder

If you want to discuss, go here: Mandated Price Transparency: Should Those in Glass Houses Throw Stones?

BobbyHeenan's post clearly brought out some people who want to discuss that post. However, the are clear questions for Jordan within that post. Please go to an alternate thread if you'd like to discuss.

 

[johnsojo]

Hi rad onc crew,

I think we have all been very interested in the Twitter posts by Jordan Johnson (Mandated Price Transparency: Should Those in Glass Houses Throw Stones?). One of our SDN users had a great suggestion for a webinar presentation to explain the basics of the price transparency mandate and what we know so far. Jordan Johnson agreed to host the webinar!

So next week we are planning for a Zoom presentation on price transparency hosted by Jordan Johnson.

Tuesday 1/26/21 @ 6pm Central Time
Join our Cloud HD Video Meeting

Thursday 1/28/21 @4pm Central Time (encore/repeat session)
Join our Cloud HD Video Meeting

In the meantime, please post any questions about price transparency or suggestions for the webinar in this thread. Jordan will be reading and will hopefully answer your questions.

This thread is for serious business only, and will be tightly moderated. You are more than welcome to have side discussions on this topic in the thread linked above.

Thanks,
Neuronix

Happy to add value. This initiative along with others will influence how and where patients are treated. Not to mention it will influence physician employment models and the traditional RO budget.
Hope to see you there
On;y 15% compliance so far
And we have systems posting this:
We understand the cost of health care can be complex. New guidelines established by the United States Department of Health and Human Services require us to publish our negotiated rates with payers for services provided. We haven’t invested our resources into this because it provides something that will only be useful for our competitors. We aren’t in it for them. We are in it for you and believe you deserve to know what’s important to your personal situation. That’s why we remain dedicated to keeping prices low for you.

 

[RickyScott]

Any trends to maximizing dollars with hypofractionation ie increase in planning charges much higher than increase in treatment charges?

 

[Reaganite]

Happy to add value. This initiative along with others will influence how and where patients are treated. Not to mention it will influence physician employment models and the traditional RO budget.
Hope to see you there
On;y 15% compliance so far
And we have systems posting this:
We understand the cost of health care can be complex. New guidelines established by the United States Department of Health and Human Services require us to publish our negotiated rates with payers for services provided. We haven’t invested our resources into this because it provides something that will only be useful for our competitors. We aren’t in it for them. We are in it for you and believe you deserve to know what’s important to your personal situation. That’s why we remain dedicated to keeping prices low for you.

If people are really committed...there is a way to acquire these data. Call cancer center X as a prospective patient and tell them you are trying to figure out your possible out-of-pocket expenses for treatment at their center. If you're savvy enough you can glean the negotiated rates from this interaction...SWIM did it for a few NCI centers and found out their rates are insane.

 

[evilbooyaa]

Happy to add value. This initiative along with others will influence how and where patients are treated. Not to mention it will influence physician employment models and the traditional RO budget.
Hope to see you there
On;y 15% compliance so far
And we have systems posting this:
We understand the cost of health care can be complex. New guidelines established by the United States Department of Health and Human Services require us to publish our negotiated rates with payers for services provided. We haven’t invested our resources into this because it provides something that will only be useful for our competitors. We aren’t in it for them. We are in it for you and believe you deserve to know what’s important to your personal situation. That’s why we remain dedicated to keeping prices low for you.

Can you please name who is putting statements like that during your webinar?

 

[Neuronix]

Reminder: second session Thursday!