It\u2019s easy to lose track of time playing \u201cguess how much a C-section costs.\u201d And women undergoing the procedure won\u2019t have an answer until after the baby is delivered.<\/p>\n
Turquoise Health, a San Diego health tech company, saw that problem and plastered sonograms across billboards and bus stops, accompanied by the phrase, \u201cthe biggest surprise shouldn\u2019t be the hospital bill.\u201d<\/p>\n
On its website, one can scroll over the continental United States, zoom into Southern California, and see how much Rady Children\u2019s Hospital charges for a cesarean \u2013 or any other procedure.<\/p>\n
The health tech company, which recently raised $40 million from investors, originated in the wake of \u00a0Trump-era price transparency legislation.<\/a> Under the a federal law, which took in 2021, health care systems, payers, and insurers must report how much they charge for each procedure and appointment with the federal government.<\/p>\n Turquoise compiles that data and sells it to health care providers, payers, employers and life sciences companies.<\/p>\n The company works with 10 of the top 25 health systems, four of the five national payers, nine of the top 10 pharmaceutical companies and six of the top 10 insurance brokers, though anyone can look to the website to compare costs of procedures.<\/a><\/p>\n By consolidating fragmented pricing data into a single system, the company aims to turn pricing and negotiation into a faster process. The data can help organizations understand how to better contract with one another and make more cost-effective decisions.<\/p>\n And that is important considering how cash-poor many health care systems are. The most expensive part of American health care doesn\u2019t stem from the actual care. It\u2019s the math that occurs before and after care is administered.<\/p>\n Instead of trying to lower costs by cutting care or paying doctors less, Turquoise is focused on eliminating administrative waste, said Chris O\u2019Dell, president of Turquoise. The problem, he said, lies in a convoluted mosaic of middlemen inflating care costs through back-and-forth negotiations over a private set of codes.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you cut all of that out, there\u2019s half a trillion dollars in savings in the U.S. health care system right there,\u201d said O\u2019Dell. \u201cOur view is that price should be agreed upon at the point of care, and that there\u2019s no pay and chase, and there\u2019s no denials, and there\u2019s no, you know, shenanigans administratively.\u201d<\/p>\n