Achieving Patient-Specific Price Transparency by Unlocking EHR Data

Health care continues its mission to use data to increase transparency, lower costs, improve quality and enhance patient choice and satisfaction. Patient information in the electronic health record (EHR) is currently being leveraged to generate patient-specific information for the costs of drugs covered under a patient’s drug benefit; the costs of drugs, devices, and services covered under the patient’s medical benefit; along with the status of patients’ specialty medication prescriptions.

Transparency has traditionally meant having providers inform patients about the procedures they offer and their associated prices. That trend is certainly alive and well. We see this most recently in the hospital transparency final rule from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).