In follow-up to yesterday’s post regarding the release of the new price and quality comparison Website – California Healthcare Compare – by the California state officials, Modern Healthcare writes that concerns persist about the level of data available and whether consumers can use it to comparison shop. The Website contains hospital-level quality ratings for hip and knee replacement, and childbirth, doctor-group quality ratings for diabetes care, back pain, and colon cancer screening. The Website also contains payment data—what the consumer pays and the part the insurer pays—for more than 100 different medical conditions and procedures. However it contains the average total price providers receive in that area, but not provider-specific data. The price information comes from Truven Health Analytics, which supplied data from more than 10 million claims during 2010 to 2013 – the analysis is at a geographic region level (18 regions statewide). The costs are presented as the average amount that is paid for the service and also as the amounts paid for the service in that area at the low and high end (the 10th and 90th percentiles). In order to be able to report provider-specific price data, California would need to establish an all-payer claims database similar to the ones in New Hampshire or Massachusetts.
Read more:
- Where the data comes from: http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/2015/09/about-california-healthcare-compare/index.htm
- California launches price transparency tool but lacks provider-specific data, Modern Healthcare
- California Dept of Insurance press release: New online tool puts healthcare price and quality information in consumers’ hands