Healthcare
There’s no shortage of frustration among consumers when sorting through health care costs. On Wednesday, June 20, Governor Kulongoski will sign House Bill 3290 that will provide free access to information on hospital-supported programs that meet community health needs, improve health status and quality of life – such as childbirth services, health clinics and many others. Thanks to HB 3290, the information will be accessible to all Oregonians through Oregon PricePoint (www.orpricepoint.org), the first website of its kind in the nation to publish financial assistance policies for every hospital.
In contrast to years past, the community benefit role of tax-exempt hospitals is not well understood, even by some health care employees. OAHHS member hospitals and health systems created HB 3290, the Community Benefits Reporting Act, in an effort to reaffirm the importance and commitment of Oregon’s hospitals to increasing accountability and demonstrating how they meet community obligations.
Facts about Oregon PricePoint
· Provides direct access to Oregon hospitals and health systems’ financial assistance guidelines.
· Supplies aggregate “discounted charge” information for each hospital for the three major kinds of health care coverage — private insurance, Medicare and Medicaid.
· Assists users in understanding how hospitals’ charges compare to the amount of payment they actually receive for services provided to the three patient categories.
· Offers consumers, employers and insurers the opportunity to develop individual queries on any hospital charge and utilization information, using the most recent 12-month period for which public data is available.
· OAHHS has collected the data used on the site for more than 20 years in collaboration with the state of Oregon.
Andy Davidson, OAHHS president and CEO, is available to speak with you about the Community Benefits Reporting Act and what it means for Oregon’s health care consumers, as well as how it could become another Oregon transparency model that other states will want to copy. Also available will be Ellen Lowe, OAHHS Community Advocate and Kevin Earls, Vice President of Policy and Advocacy who championed the bill.
To arrange an interview or for additional information, please contact:
Karen Normandin
Director of Public Affairs, OAHHS
503-479-6003
Thank you for your consideration.
