“Just saying no” on healthcare costs

Here’s an interesting piece of news, from Kaiser back in May but reprinted in the Chicago Tribune this morning:

Hospital prices have risen nearly three times as much as overall inflation since Ronald Reagan was president. Health payers have tried HMOs, accountable care organizations and other innovations to control them, with little effect.

A small benefits consulting firm called ELAP Services is causing commotion by suggesting an alternative: Refuse to pay. When hospitals send invoices with charges that seem to bear no relationship to their costs, the Pennsylvania firm tells its clients (generally medium-sized employers) to just say no.

Instead, employers pay hospitals a much lower amount for their services — based on ELAP’s analysis of what is reasonable after analyzing the hospitals’ own financial filings.

For facilities on the receiving end of ELAP’s unusual strategy, this is a disruption of business as usual, to say the least. Hospitals are unhappy but have failed to make headway against it in court.

This is an extraordinary move; read the whole thing as I can’t summarize the concept in a few words.  Then please tell me what you think.