Consumer-Driven Health Reform at Risk
From The Alliance for Natural Health
…Some recent healthcare reforms give us more choice and flexibility.
Telehealth is a key example, which we’ve covered previously. Telehealth lowers healthcare costs, since telehealth visits are inherently less expensive than in-person visits. There are a number of bills in Congress that seek to make permanent changes in the rules to allow more access to telemedicine (currently, many of these changes are in response to the pandemic and could revert back once the public health emergency it is over). We noted that there are also pushes to mandate that insurers reimburse for telemedicine at the same rate as in-person visits (called payment parity). These crony price-fixing schemes are designed to thwart competition and keep healthcare costs high, and must be opposed.
Price transparency has also been required of hospitals, per an executive order. This is a crucial reform: hospitals are a crony capitalist mess and charge vastly different prices for the same services—even facilities in the same area. This much-needed reform will allow consumers to avoid hospitals charging extortionist prices. We must make sure it is codified into law.
This article was originally posted here: https://www.ac2news.com/2020/11/consumer-driven-health-reform-at-risk/.
