News, Analysis, Trends, Management Innovations for
Clinical Laboratories and Pathology Groups

Hosted by Robert Michel

News, Analysis, Trends, Management Innovations for
Clinical Laboratories and Pathology Groups

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

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 the prices of medical laboratory tests in advance of services.

This new price-transparency project includes Aetna (NYSE: ATE), UnitedHealthcare (NYSE: UNH), and Humana (NYSE: HUM). The three health insurers are partnering with the Health Care Cost Institute (HCCI), a nonprofit organization that maintains a database on healthcare cost and utilization.

The insurers will share healthcare price data. HCCI plans to provide the general public free, online access to this information, beginning in early 2015. (more…)

Public Hospital in Phoenix Slashes Patient Self-Pay Prices by 50% to Increase Hospital Price Transparency

Maricopa Integrated Health System reports that price transparency pays off by reducing uncompensated care and increasing business

Arizona has a new law that requires hospitals, medical laboratories, diagnostic imaging facilities, ambulatory surgery centers, and urgent-care centers to publish the prices they charge self-pay and uninsured patients for the 50 most common inpatient and outpatient services. The law took effect on January 1, 2014.

News accounts report that just one hospital took steps to publish its prices earlier this year. Pathologists and clinical laboratory managers will find the experience of Maricopa Integrated Health System to be instructive, as hospital administrators there publicly state that this was the right thing to do for patients in their community. (more…)

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

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 marketplace is Castlight Health (NYSE: CSLT). Based in San Francisco, it was founded in 2008. One aspect of Castlight that pathologists and clinical laboratory managers may find particularly interesting is its price transparency tool. (more…)

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