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      TRANSPARENCY OF PUBLICLY AVAILABLE ART CHARGES ON U.S. CLINIC WEBSITES

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      ScienceOpen Preprints
      ScienceOpen
      Infertility, IVF, ART charges, IVF charges, DHHS regions, charge transparency
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            Abstract

            Background: Treatment for ART services is relatively expensive and encourages patients to compare charges among ART clinics. There continues to be increased demand for ART services. Along with these, one would expect increased online searches of ART treatments and corresponding charges. This study evaluated the transparency and informativeness of ART-associated charges publicly available on ART clinic websites across the U.S.

            Study design: Evaluation of U.S. ART clinic websites was performed by three raters using a true/false rating scale to determine the availability of the ART- associated charges, including diagnosis, treatment, monitoring, medications, and laboratory services. We evaluated whether academic and non-academic medical centers, geographic location, clinic volume, or ART-mandated and non-mandated coverage for infertility treatment influence the transparency of ART charges. Interrater variability was assessed using modified Fleiss' kappa. Chi-Square analysis was used to test whether DHHS regions, academic versus non-academic hospitals, ART-mandated states versus non-mandated states, and the area's urban character influence the charges displayed. The role of the annual number of total ART cycles on ratings was assessed using the Pearson correlation.

            Results: Of the 464 ART clinics evaluated, 84% (n=390) were classified as minimally transparent and informative regarding publicly available ART charges. Of DHHS-designated regions, Region 8 (Denver) had the highest transparency (57.1%, p<0.001) for information on fresh ART cycles. There were no differences among the remaining nine DHHS regions. The ART state mandate, academic affiliation, population density, urbanization level, and clinical volume were not associated with greater transparency of ART charges.

            Conclusion: Many ART clinics demonstrate minimal transparency and informativeness of their charges on clinic websites. Analysis of the DHHS regions, ART-mandated states, the role of academia, population density, and level of urbanization suggests that the lack of transparency could be associated with current ART clinic-specific policies.

            Content

            Author and article information

            Journal
            ScienceOpen Preprints
            ScienceOpen
            14 December 2022
            Affiliations
            [1 ] Clinical Outcomes Research Group (CORG)
            Author notes
            Author information
            https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5433-1118
            Article
            10.14293/S2199-1006.1.SOR-.PPG226A.v1
            4f473fa1-f07a-4922-b885-4a2d73b99ee8

            This work has been published open access under Creative Commons Attribution License CC BY 4.0 , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Conditions, terms of use and publishing policy can be found at www.scienceopen.com .

            History
            : 14 December 2022
            Funding
            Clinical Outcomes Research Group (CORG) N/A
            Categories

            The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
            Medicine
            Infertility, IVF, ART charges, IVF charges, DHHS regions, charge transparency

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