The California Department of Insurance on Friday unveiled a new online tool for consumers that compares the price and quality of childbirth, cancer screening and dozens of other medical procedures among health-care providers in the state.
Cahealthcarecompare.org was built in partnership with Consumer Reports and the University of California at San Francisco using a $3.9 million grant from the Affordable Care Act.
“Californians have had very little access to price information before medical care. In the last few years we’ve made great strides in getting more Californians enrolled in health insurance, and excitedly so, but oftentimes health insurance has very high deductibles or out-of-pocket costs you have to pay,” Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones said at a press conference on Monday in San Francisco.
“And so knowing what the cost of care is becomes even more important as we see more health insurance move to these higher deductibles and high out-of-pocket costs,” Jones continued.
Jones said Californians until now have had very little access to pricing information for health care, calling it akin to shopping with a bag over one’s head.
Doris Peter, director of the Consumer Reports Health Rating Center, said her organization polled thousands of consumers as the online tool was developed. At the website, consumers can now access four resources: easy-to-digest data, basic information on payments made to providers, information on how to obtain a personalized estimate for health-care costs, and consumer stories.
For example, users can search geographically for individual hospitals or childbirth services. A 1 through 5 rating is assigned for price and quality at each facility. Peter noted that the website shows price and quality vary widely locally and regionally in California.
This website isn’t possible in most states, said Dr. R. Adams Dudley, director of UCSF’s Center for Healthcare Value.
“We just have a lot more information about quality and price of care here in California than people have in other states, and that again reflects the long work and input of the California stakeholders,” Dudley said, crediting business leaders, advocacy groups and hospitals for making the data publicly available.
Deciding what to report on and building consensus for what should be included on the website was time consuming, Dudley said. The online tool was under development since 2013.
