County could cut $116M in spending on imaging, other services by steering patients toward cheaper options
One Massachusetts county could cut some $116.6 million in healthcare spending over four years by steering patients away from the costliest providers of imaging and other shoppable services.
That’s according to a new analysis out of the Pioneer Institute, a Boston-based think tank, released on Monday. The group is urging employers, politicians and primary care physicians to help bolster price transparency for those seeking radiology care.
“With patient navigators and financial incentives from their insurance carriers to utilize lower cost providers—and support from administrative staff at physicians’ offices to help them find alternative providers and resources—consumers can alter their behavior,” report co-author Barbara Anthony, a senior fellow in healthcare policy at the Pioneer Institute, said in a statement.
Anthony and colleagues reached their conclusions by analyzing prices for 16 “shoppable” healthcare services delivered in Massachusetts’ Suffolk County in 2015. Those included mammography, chest radiography, foot x-rays, computed tomography imaging of the lungs with contrast, brain MRI, and CT scans of the abdomen plus pelvis. Colonoscopy and physical therapy were also included in the analysis.
The authors said such savings could be achieved by pushing patients away from the 20% of providers with the highest prices toward those in the 40%-80% range. Previous surveys conducted by the Pioneer Institute found that 3 out of every 4 consumers would be interested in receiving incentives to use lower-cost providers.
In mammography alone, Suffolk County—which includes Boston, Chelsea, Revere and Winthrop—could tally some $6.7 million in net annual savings by shifting patients to cheaper providers. Six-digit or more savings could also be achieved in foot x-ray imaging ($134,859) chest radiography ($347,709), and brain MRI ($5.9 million).
Researchers also urged primary care doctors and other referrers to provide patients with lists of low-cost, high-value imaging centers, and asked the state to take on the issue too.
“The authors call on the commonwealth to use its bully pulpit to spur innovation around incentive programs and to focus on price transparency,” the think tank noted in its announcement.
You can read the full analysis from the Pioneer Institute here.
Marty Stempniak has covered healthcare since 2012, with his byline appearing in the American Hospital Association's member magazine, Modern Healthcare and McKnight's. Prior to that, he wrote about village government and local business for his hometown newspaper in Oak Park, Illinois. He won a Peter Lisagor and Gold EXCEL awards in 2017 for his coverage of the opioid epidemic.