Healthcare Cost Transparency in Health

January 7th, 2012Doctor's Fee, Healthcare Cost0 comments

There has been an increased trend toward healthcare transparency—the revealing of the cost of doctor’s and dentist’s visits so that patients and the healthcare system in general can know the exact cost of healthcare in certain situations. The idea is to increase competition and hold doctors and dentists accountable for what they charge for a given procedure or visit. This should also make healthcare costs drop because they are no longer invisible to the populace.

When it comes to dental work, more women and seniors go to see the dentist every year and many see them at the beginning of the year. As dental care rises, fewer companies are offering dental coverage to their employees and families. Right now in the US, about 57 percent of people have dental coverage as opposed to 85 percent of people who have medical services covered. Incidentally, the out of pocket costs are much greater in dental insurance than in health insurance. The deductibles are higher than in healthcare costs.

All of this is caused fewer people to go for routine care and more to go only when they have a known dental problem. The most common dental services are preventative exams, cavity repair and wisdom teeth removal. An estimated 75 percent of adults have dental disease in the gums and yet few people are screened for this preventable disease. Preventative adult exams can cost as much as $240 or as little as $55 (in US) as found in transparency studies. If this transparency were to be revealed, the costs can go as low as $35 or as high as $180—a significant difference.

Corrective repair costs even more and without transparency, there can be as much as $360 cost in doing a cavity. Orthodontics is even worse, with thousands of dollars in difference depending on who you see for your orthodontic care. It costs up to $6960 to fix maligned teeth in some areas while others cost only $2400. And this isn’t just a location matter, either. Orthodontists in similar areas can charge wildly differing amounts.

So will the addition of transparency change the cost of healthcare? If the healthcare is really transparent before the patient receives the care and can really make a comparison, this will lower the cost substantially and will help people get better dental care at a more affordable cost. This may mean that more people will get screening tests and preventative care for dental care in the future.

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