At the recent ViVE Conference, healthcare industry experts gathered to discuss the challenges and opportunities surrounding interoperability and price transparency. Presented by HLTH and CHIME, a range of topics were the focus of the event, exploring HealthcareIT interoperability, behavior health, health equity and continued efforts in cybersecurity.

In a panel discussion titled “Running Up that Hospital Bill,” industry experts highlighted the challenges associated with price transparency. The Transparency in Coverage Rule requires health plans to make price comparison data available for 500 items and services this year, expanding to all covered services in 2023. Panelist Niall Brennan from Clarify Health criticized the rule, noting that some payers use tactics to game the system with “zombie rates.”

Prabhjot Singh from the Peterson Center on Healthcare pointed out that public awareness of available price transparency tools remains low.

Turning [his] attention to interoperability, Tripathi noted that the healthcare industry has made considerable progress on FHIR APIs with certified vendors able to make APIs available to their healthcare industry customers. He acknowledged that 30% of hospitals lack the resources to implement this technology.

Micky Tripathi, head of the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC), provided a progress report on interoperability, addressing the focal points of digital foundation, ease of interoperability, and sharing data. Tripathi also discussed the ONC’s focus on health equity and its efforts to capture health equity data more consistently.

Cybersecurity was another key concern addressed at the conference. Errol Weiss, Chief Security Officer for Health with Health ISAC, shared findings from their latest cybersecurity report and drew attention to a new trend called “call back phishing.”

Weiss also cautioned that remote patient monitoring and advanced language models like Chat GPT and Google Bard could pose cybersecurity risks to healthcare organizations.

Innovative solutions and collaborations were also featured at the conference, such as Serif Health’s API for accessing price transparency data and BehaVR’s virtual reality software for physical therapy and chronic pain management.

The ViVE Conference showcased the importance of collaboration and knowledge sharing among industry leaders and stakeholders to navigate the challenges of price transparency.

By fostering a better understanding of the issue and promoting innovative solutions, healthcare organizations can work together to empower patients, enhance decision-making, and ultimately, improve patient experiences and outcomes.

As healthcare providers and organizations navigate challenges related to price transparency, cybersecurity, and interoperability, they may increasingly seek the expertise of staffing to supply candidates in emerging and evolving talent pools.

For an in-depth review, read MedCityNews’ report on the conference by Micky Tripathi, the National Coordinator for Health IT.

Source: MedCityNews.com – Navigating the Challenges of Price Transparency: Highlights from ViVE