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Governor's Health Care Transparency Award

PROGRAM GOAL

Governor Ron DeSantis and the Secretary of the Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) have a shared vision to make Florida’s health care system the most transparent in the nation. This award recognizes a Florida licensed hospital or ambulatory surgical center (ASC) when they rise to the challenge by making available more meaningful information about their pricing, financial policies, and performance to patients and prospective patients.

This award distinguishes a facility that has exceeded the bar set by regulatory standards and is actively providing accessible, understandable, and usable information and measures on their public website in a way that allows viewers to better understand how the facility compares to similar providers in their local area, and even across the state and the nation.

PROGRAM BENEFITS

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A participating hospital or ASC distinguished with this award is being recognized as a leader and innovator in Florida’s collective efforts to ensure that every person has the ability to make informed choices when faced with important, potentially life-impacting health care decisions.

 

REQUIREMENTS FOR PARTICIPATION

Florida law requires hospitals and ambulatory surgical centers (ASCs) licensed in the state to publish certain information related to quality and costs on their public websites. As such, the awardee not only meets but exceeds all established federal and state requirements regarding their public website, as verified by the Agency at the time of award. The Governor and the Agency agree that the most effective web-based tools for consumers share a set of key common characteristics:

  • They give patients understandable information about the price of healthcare services and the provider's performance and quality;
  • They provide useful comparisons allowing consumers to shop for health care services when they can be arranged in advance and there is a choice of providers.

PROVIDER SELECTED FOR THE AWARD

  • Must be a hospital or ambulatory surgical center (ASC) licensed in Florida in good standing
  • Must have no outstanding deficiencies or omissions cited in relation to the requirements established under section 395.301, Florida Statutes and further defined chapters 59A-5.032 (ASCs) and 59A-3.256 (hospitals), F.A.C.
  • Must provide easy to locate links to quality and pricing information on their facility website's primary homepage or entry point
  • Must ensure the comparative price and quality information is easily accessible through minimal "clicks" or steps from the website's primary homepage
  • Must present the quality and price information in plain language, in a way that is understandable to the general public
  • Must provide assurance that the information is current by displaying the specific date ranges associated with specific price and quality information as well as the date on which the website was last refreshed
  • Must incorporate website accessibility criteria established by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
  • Must include answers to common questions about the quality and pricing measures available on the website

SURVEY/QUESTIONNAIRE

We invite all Florida licensed hospitals and ambulatory surgical centers (ASCs) with public websites that qualify for the 2019 Governor’s Health Care Transparency Award to complete the following self-assessment questionnaire. The nomination period opens on November 4, 2019 and closes on December 1, 2019.

We encourage and applaud every organization willing to participate by completing this Self-Nomination questionnaire. The questionnaire is available for electronic information entry here on this webpage. If selected, you will receive an award notification letter, certificate, and an advance promotional packet to assist you in highlighting your achievement - including permission to display the official award “badge” on your facility’s website. Your dedication to promoting meaningful information for health care consumers to make informed decisions about their care is sincerely appreciated. Thank you for your commitment to high quality, affordable, and effective health care for our citizens.

Governor's Health Care Transparency Award Survey Tips and List of Information to Gather

The questionnaire will ask questions pertaining to the following areas. Please review the list below prior to beginning in order to ensure you have complete information that will assist you in answering all the questions.

Questions will seek direct links and the number of clicks needed to display the following information:

  • Meeting of federal and state requirements
  • Use of login to gain access to price and/or quality measures
  • Display of transparency information
  • Price estimates for individual and bundled services
  • Pricing for inpatient and outpatient procedures
  • Display of FloridaHealthFinder.gov link
  • Quality measures for consumers to evaluate performance
  • Independent third party quality measures
  • Quality measurement time period
  • Date of most recent updates
  • Access to FAQs or other learning tools
  • Direct contact information
  • Mobile compatibility
  • Downloadable data capabilities
  • Areas of additional transparency innovations worth sharing

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