Indiana is likely one of the most distinguished states within the nation in medical product manufacturing and manufacturing typically, in addition to delivery and distribution. Yet our well being care is among the nation’s most costly and is threatening Indiana’s thriving enterprise sector.
Due partially to our comparatively low company tax fee and beneficiant property tax abatements, Indiana has turn into residence to a few of this nation’s most revolutionary and distinguished pharmaceutical and medical system producers.
Indiana additionally touts an distinctive transportation economic system due to its central place within the U.S. and its streamlined transportation system.
Each yr, 724 million tons of freight is transported by way of Indiana, making it the fifth most energetic state for business freight visitors.
While Indiana is a pacesetter in manufacturing and distribution of medical merchandise, our well being care persistently ranks as one of the costly within the nation, making well being care more and more unaffordable to Hoosier employers and particular person customers.
With such productiveness in innovation and manufacturing throughout the well being care sector, it’s disappointing that our state’s hospital charges are ranked seventh within the nation, in accordance with the RAND 4.0 Hospital Transparency Study.
Indiana hospitals are the fourth most costly within the nation for inpatient companies and sixth for outpatient companies. In 2020, Hoosier employers paid nearly 3 times the costs they paid Medicare for a similar companies, greater than all 4 surrounding states: Michigan, Illinois, Ohio and Kentucky.
Yet Indiana physicians are reimbursed at one of many lowest charges within the nation.
These elements have brought on Indiana employers and care suppliers to take their enterprise to different states.
I got here to the U.S. Senate to sort out the damaged, costly American well being care system. From the start, I’ve preached that transparency is the important thing to competitors, resulting in higher entry and high quality of well being care.
President Donald Trump made vital strides in infusing transparency into hospitals and large insurance coverage by way of his Hospital Price Transparency and Transparency in Coverage guidelines.
I’ve a invoice to codify his guidelines, known as the Health Care PRICE Transparency Act, which might require primary transparency in hospital service pricing and insurer cost-sharing data.
I’m inspired by the Biden administration’s enforcement of this rule, however as of February, solely 14 % of hospitals are complying with the value transparency rule, which went into impact January 2021.
It’s previous time for hospitals throughout the nation to embrace worth transparency to convey down unnecessarily excessive medical costs for hardworking Hoosiers and different Americans.
Without visibility into costs, self-insured employers aren’t solely unable to supply protection plans that present probably the most worth to their staff, they’re additionally pressured to bear the brunt of typically high-priced care of their staff. This inhibits affected person entry to high quality well being care and hurts the economic system.
It is important that the hospital and insurance coverage industries begin embracing worth and cost-sharing transparency. The lack of compliance with the Hospital Price Transparency rule by hospitals throughout the nation, particularly in Indiana, is disappointing.
Hoosiers want transparency to revive the state’s hospitable setting for enterprise and entrepreneurialism.