Aetna, Humana, and UnitedHealth Agree to Share Data with HCCI to Give Consumers a Free, Comprehensive Source for Comparing Healthcare Prices and Quality

Jul 9, 2014 | Coding, Billing, and Collections, Compliance, Legal, and Malpractice, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology

Scheduled to launch in early 2015, the Health Care Cost Institute’s free online tool will give consumers access to data on provider prices and quality It’s a significant sign of the times when three of the nation’s biggest health insurance companies agree to share data on healthcare prices and utilization specifically so that consumers can access this information. This will advance price transparency. It will also put more pressure on clinical laboratories to make it easy for consumers to see...

Castlight Health Offers Employers a Cloud-based Price Transparency Tool to Help Employees Shop for Low-Cost, High Quality Health Services

Jun 16, 2014 | Coding, Billing, and Collections, Compliance, Legal, and Malpractice, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Managed Care Contracts & Payer Reimbursement, Management & Operations

Similar to Oscar Healthcare in New York, this California-based enterprise technology company offers services to make it easy for individuals to see providers’ prices, including medical laboratory test prices Another company has entered the marketplace with their unorthodox business model to support health insurance programs. One cornerstone feature is a tool that enables both employers and beneficiaries to see the prices of different providers. This young player in the health benefits...

Certain Pathologists Found Themselves in the ‘Highest Paid’ Media Spotlight after Medicare Officials Published Physician Pay Data for 2012

May 23, 2014 | Compliance, Legal, and Malpractice, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Managed Care Contracts & Payer Reimbursement, Management & Operations

For first time since launch of the Medicare program, CMS released data on Medicare payments to individual physicians Once again, Medicare officials have stuck a blow for price transparency. On April 9, 2014, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released data on total payments made to individual physicians for the year 2012. In several states, pathologists were identified as among the highest-paid physicians. Release of this information generated stories by the national and...

Consumers Turn to the Internet to Shop for Cheapest Prices Offered by Hospitals, Physicians, and Clinical Pathology Laboratories

Jan 6, 2014 | Laboratory Hiring & Human Resources, Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology, Laboratory Sales and Marketing, Managed Care Contracts & Payer Reimbursement

Medibid.com is typical of new companies that help consumers identify providers with the best combination of low price and high quality Should anyone be surprised that high insurance deductibles are motivating patients to shop for the best value on all sorts of healthcare services—including medical laboratory tests? One way consumers can shop for the lowest price is to utilize new web sites that allow providers to bid for the patient’s business! Potential Business Opportunity for Clinical Labs...