ACP: Improved Transparency Requires Reliable Data

Besides being transparent, any methodology used to publicly report price needs to contain adequate protections to ensure the reporting of reliable and valid price information, ACP recommended. In addition, price information provided to patients or consumers should be readily available and "presented in a manner that is easily understood and reflective of its limitations."

 
Price also should never be used as the "sole criterion for choosing a physician or any other healthcare professional." Price should only be considered along with the “explicit consideration” of the quality of services delivered and/or the effectiveness of the intervention, ACP noted.

For increasing the use of clinical performance transparency, ACP called for looking at clinical quality, resource use, and experience of care, which is the patient's view of care received from a provider.