Colorado Gov. Jared Polis has unveiled a roadmap to address healthcare affordability, and the plan begins with increasing hospital price transparency, according to the Colorado Times Reporter.
The governor created the Office of Saving People Money on Health Care, led by Lt. Gov. Dianne Primavera, a four-time cancer survivor, to implement the roadmap.
“Gov. Polis and Lt. Gov. Primavera have an ambitious agenda to reduce healthcare costs while ensuring culturally responsive and equitable access to care,” the roadmap states. “High premiums, deductibles and other out-of-pocket charges make it difficult for people to afford care. It’s time to get healthcare costs under control.”
On March 28, Gov. Polis signed a law that requires hospitals to publicly disclose more of their financial information.
The legislation directs the state department of healthcare policy and financing to prepare an annual report detailing uncompensated costs and expenditures using publicly available data and self-reported information from hospitals.
The department must submit the report to the governor, specific committees of the general assembly and the medical services board in the department by Jan. 15, 2020, and annually after that.
Other steps in the roadmap include establishing a reinsurance pool to reduce insurance premiums; lowering hospital prices; and reducing out-of-pocket costs by increasing patient protections, such as bans on surprise, out-of-network costs.
