SNEK POLICY
Stop Hiding Prices Inside Global Billing
Bundled healthcare pricing can be useful. Opaque bundles are not.
Explain the bundle
Patients should receive an understandable breakdown of what a bundled charge includes, which professionals or services are covered, and what additional charges may still occur.
Itemized does not mean absurd
Transparency does not require every hospital to bill every gauze pad separately. It means the customer should understand what the package includes and who is getting paid.
FULL POLICY DETAILS
The longer version
Why SNEK thinks this
SNEK’s problem with opaque global billing is not that bundled payment is always bad. Bundles can simplify care. The problem is using one unexplained number to prevent patients, insurers, Medicare, employers, or auditors from seeing what was actually provided and what each major component is costing.
How it would work
A bundled bill should still have an intelligible underlying accounting. Patients and payers should be able to see the significant services, supplies, facility components, professional components, and other major charges included in the bundle. Public programs should be able to audit the underlying costs rather than being told only that a single global price is the price.
Where SNEK leaves room
SNEK does not require every gauze pad or minute of staff time to become a separate retail line item. Reasonable bundling is fine when the bundle remains transparent enough to audit and compare. The line is opacity, not the mere existence of package pricing.
Related SNEK policies
Tell People What Healthcare Costs • Medical Supplies Should Not Become a Blank Check