Employer Price Transparency Project

The Employers’ Forum of Indiana commissioned RAND Corporation in 2016 to conduct the first publicly-available employer price transparency study in the United States that compares what employers pay as a percent of what Medicare pays for the same services. This Employer Price Transparency Project has resulted in a series of Employer Price Transparency Studies published in 2017, 2019, 2020, and 2022. Millions of employers’ hospital and ASC insurance claims data, which note the ACTUAL prices paid by employers and their employees, from across the country have been analyzed. The real price of health care is notoriously opaque in the United States and this project has allowed everyone to see behind the curtain for the first time. These prices are akin to the receipts of what was paid, not simply prices posted.

We all want high quality healthcare at a fair price. Sage Transparency, the first-of-its-kind, publicly-available, customizable, online dashboard, was created in 2022 by the Employers’ Forum of Indiana. This dashboard includes price and quality data for services provided at hospitals and ASCs across the United States. The aim of Sage Transparency is to provide an easy-to-use tool to inform purchasing decisions.

This website also connects users to resources that examine how hospital prices are set, why price transparency matters, and how these Employer Price Transparency Studies and Sage Transparency are providing information that could create meaningful action to improve the healthcare marketplace.