Florida Hospital Association Gets Transparent With New Tool

Whether you’re dealing with high blood pressure  (opens in a new tab) or about to start a family  (opens in a new tab), a new tool from the Florida Hospital Association (FHA) could bring some clarity to the process before the medical bills come.

Last week, the association launched a website and database called Mission to Care  (opens in a new tab), which highlights the costs of the 50 most-popular medical procedures at hospitals around the state. The website gathers information from a variety of resources  (opens in a new tab), including:

• Discharge data from Florida’s Agency for Health Care Administration
• Data from the Florida Hospital Uniform Reporting System
• Hospital comparison ratings from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
• Patient experience ratings from the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems

“On the search page, consumers can search by hospitals, [as well as] the individual procedure or health condition such as cesarean section, high blood pressure, or hip, ankle or knee procedures,” explained Kim Streit, FHA’s vice president of healthcare research and information, in comments to WFSU  (opens in a new tab).

The solution introduced by the association is an approach to an issue that’s quickly becoming a major talking point for the state’s medical industry—the fact that prices for medical procedures are often opaque.

Last year, Florida was one of 45 states to receive a failing grade based  (opens in a new tab) on its healthcare transparency laws, according to a report released  (opens in a new tab) [PDF] by the Catalyst for Payment Reform and Health Care Incentives Improvement Institute. Florida Gov. Rick Scott, who was once a healthcare executive, is among the advocates pushing for more healthcare transparency, and lawmakers are working on legislation to take on the issue.

But FHA’s tool is a good argument that an association can take the lead on a pressing regulatory problem.

“We can do this quickly and without legislation,” FHA President Bruce Rueben said of the issue, according to the Orlando Business Journal  (opens in a new tab). “It’s a step forward as our state looks at how to move forward with the issue of transparency.”

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