Making Sense Out of Existing Data

Did you know that health care price data exists today --it's just not available to the public. I am passionate about bringing consumerism to health care, and dedicated to promoting price transparency.  My goal is to make sense of the existing price data to help consumers make informed choices. 

For CONSUMERS

• Hunting down true out-of-pocket expenses for health care services – in advance, can be frustrating.  Unless you are an experienced data minter, this type of hunting can be intimidating and time-consuming.  If you are uninsured, under-insured, looking for an out-of-network provider, or have a high-deductible health plan, you are probably trying to make cost-effective choices before purchasing health care services.  And you are probably interested in knowing your true out of pocket cost for the services BEFORE you visit the provider.    That’s just being a good consumer.  You need useful and relevant tools to help you make good choices.

For INSURERS

• You are the keeper of all the claims data for your members.  You know exactly the negotiated (contracted) price for every provider, for every service, for every different insurance plan you offer.  You also know how much of a member’s deductible has been met.  You have databases of prices paid for every service for every member and could make life a lot easier for your members and possibly change health care if you agreed to share this data to make it publically available.  Yet you insist on keeping this data a secret. 

For OUTOFPOCKET.COM

• I am inviting consumers to post/share prices they paid in the directory.   Everyone wants to look up prices, but very few are willing to take a minute to post/share their prices.  We could wait years for legislation to pass, insurers to agree to make prices public, or we could do something today.  Consumers are invited (and encouraged!) to collaborate and share prices they paid on OutofPocket.com.  If enough consumers participate and share prices, consumers collectively will create a very powerful directory of true out-of-pocket prices.

For PROVIDERS

• You have an opportunity to transform health care as we know it today.  You can help promote transparency by publishing your prices for services.   Why not let consumers know up front what your services will cost them?  OutofPocket.com invites you to include your prices/services in the directory - free of charge.  This not only promotes your practice, but also helps consumers understand what they will be required to pay for services at your facility.

Imagine how easy it would be to comparison shop for health care services if relevant data was available. If consumers had access to true healthcare price data, comparison shopping for health care services could be a lot like your experience shopping for a book on Amazon.com, booking a vacation on Travelocity.com or purchasing an item on eBay.com. 

Tell a friend about OutofPocket.com and be sure to add prices you paid for health care services to this directory.   Not only will you be sharing data, but you will be contributing to a powerful directory of prices that will help promote more affordable health care services.

• Your Doctor May Be Clueless About Cost (U.S. News)
• How To Cut Health Care Costs (Forbes.com)
• Health care costs rising, but expenses can be controlled (USA Today)
• This Open-Enrollment Season, Beware of Out-of-Pocket Costs (Wall Street Journal)
• Logging On for a Second (or Third) Opinion (The New York Times)
• Six Ways to Save Money on Prescription Drugs and Doctors (CNN.com)

I am pleased to announce the new release of OutofPocket.com, version 2.0.  Our new search engine enables consumers to look-up prices for health care services, and allows providers to list their prices/services in the directory - free of charge.  In addition, the search engine features expanded search technology and searches for health care price data across other public price transparency tools.

I welcome all your feedback and comments on this new release and I would appreciate if you could help us spread the word.  As you know, the more people that contribute and use this tool, the more powerful it will become for everyone.

Thank you for all that you do to help promote health care price transparency. 

NEW FEATURES IN OUTOFPOCKET.COM VERSION 2.0

(1) Enhanced search engine provides more relevant search results

(2) Easy for consumers to post/share their own visits and prices they paid for services

(3) Comprehensive search results - searches other websites that publish pricing and websites that offer price transparency tools

PRICE DATA COLLECTED FROM MULTIPLE SOURCES

·         Providers can submit price lists for their services

·         Consumers are invited to post/share prices they paid for actual visits, along with their personal recommendations on the provider

·         Claims Data from Businesses, Health Plans or TPAs

·         Government CMS Medicare payment data

·         Websites that publish prices for health care services including hospitals, diagnostic testing facilities, clinics and physician practices

·         Price Transparency Tools on public websites including health plan tools and state price transparency tools

BENEFITS for BUSINESSES

·         Load your claims data into OutofPocket.com to enable your employees to search for their true out-of-pocket costs for specific service

·         Employees can use OutofPocket.com to search for prices for specific services in your network plan

·         Encourage employees to collaborate and post prices they paid for health care services, to share these good deals with other employees

·         Eliminate providers that overcharge - Use OutofPocket.com to direct your employees to affordable, low-cost providers

·         Avoid providers with poor performance by encouraging employees to share recommendations on provider visits

BENEFITS for CONSUMERS

·         Look-up prices, comparison shop and find the best value for routine health care services in your neighborhood

·         Tool makes it easy for you to post/share prices you paid for actual services with other consumers

·         Share your recommendations on a specific provider with other consumers

BENEFITS for PROVIDERS

·         Add your true prices/services to the directory – free of charge

·         Consumers can easily find your services and link to your website

·         Include additional information about your practice, services

·         Search results links directly to your website

·         Provides additional exposure for your services

Instead of sitting  back and waiting for the government, providers and insurers to publish meaningful price data to help consumers make informed decisions about value, we developed a solution that can help consumers today.  In July, we launched an early release of www.OutofPocket.com, a platform for collecting and sharing price information for routine health care services.  This online resource, OutofPocket.com, enables consumers to share price information that can help others find the best value.  Our objective was to collect early feedback, build awareness for the new website, and enable people to start sharing price information to help others find the best value.  While the website is still evolving, we strongly believe that launching OutofPocket is better than doing nothing.   OutofPocket is available today for consumers to start collecting and sharing true prices for health care services.

To everyone that sent us comments - thank you for taking the time to review our website and send us your feedback.  We consider your feedback a gift. 

Over the next couple of months we will be working on the next release of the website.  Our #1 goal is when you search on OutofPocket.com, you will always have relevant content returned in the search results.

Some of the features we are working on include

1. enhance the wizard to make it easier for you to post you visits/prices/recommendations

2. allow users to rate search results and add their recommendations to a provider already in the directory

3. invite providers that disclose pricing to include their services/prices in the directory

4. include additional Government CMS Medicare payment data

5. improve the dislay of search results to identify consumer-generated-content, provider price list, and Medicare data.

We invite you to continue adding your visits and price information to the directory.  If enough people participate to share prices, consumers will have created a very powerful pricing directory.  Thank you for all that you do to help make this grassroots initiative successful.