BRENTWOOD, Tenn., Jan. 05, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- MDsave, the leading health technology company in transparent, shoppable medical care, launched on January 1st its latest product to help hospitals meet federal price transparency requirements as set out in the Hospital Price Transparency Final Rule, with the additional option to allow patients to instantly purchase shoppable, bundled procedures without risk of surprise bills.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) will give no grace period to hospitals, beginning price transparency audits and investigating transparency complaints in January 2021 after the Final Rule regulations take effect on New Year’s Day.
To pass the audit, hospitals must list their prices online in two forms: 300 consumer-friendly, shoppable services and a machine-readable file listing all standard charges including negotiated rates with insurers. Noncompliance may lead to fines up to $300 per day, which could add up to $109,500 over the course of a year.
MDsave’s price transparency product is a cost-effective, turnkey solution for hospital price transparency compliance that displays shoppable procedure prices and insurance rates side-by-side on a patient-friendly ecommerce webpage. A simple search function allows patients to search for their procedure by name, with the option to select an insurance provider to see rates the hospital has negotiated with that payor or leave it blank to see self-pay rates.
What separates MDsave transparency from other tools is the option to display instantly transactable, pre-pay prices for fully bundled procedures alongside a hospital’s self-pay and insurance rates. MDsave’s user-friendly ecommerce technology lets patients shop for care the same way they purchase other items online, paying one upfront price in lieu of receiving multiple bills (“surprise billing”), and obtaining a voucher as proof of purchase to redeem at the hospital. Patients choose a procedure, add to cart, and check out using a credit/debit card, PayPal, or promotional financing. Hospitals are guaranteed payment within four days of rendering service, an unheard of turnaround time in an industry with minimum 30-day billing cycles. MDsave technology is currently used by more than 300 hospitals across the U.S.
“Hospitals don’t need to devote their IT resources to building a transparency page from the ground up,” said Paul Ketchel, MDsave CEO. “We’ve made this transparency tool easy to implement and from there, MDsave takes care of the rest.”
Greg Born, MDsave’s President and COO, added that, “This is a product that creates a great patient experience and the potential to acquire new patients looking for a procedure. There’s no need to risk financial penalties when a transparent shopping page can become a new source of revenue.”
To learn more, visit MDsave.com/price-transparency.
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About MDsave
Headquartered in Brentwood, Tenn., MDsave is the world’s first online healthcare marketplace, bringing together patients seeking affordable, reliable care with providers offering high-quality services at fair prices. Using patented technology, MDsave simplifies the healthcare billing process for patients and providers alike through negotiated rates, bundled pricing and upfront payment. The MDsave marketplace also helps employers and payers offer more value to employees and policyholders with out-of-pocket deductible costs. For more information, visit http://www.mdsave.com.
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