In one Delaware hospital system, healthcare claims showed a trip to the emergency room for an issue of “mild severity” costs about $330 with commercial insurance. With another healthcare provider, that same visit can cost over $1,200.
Health care cost discrepancies can be seen across the board; and now, with the new CostAware website launched by the Department of Health and Social Services on Thursday, these variations in cost can be seen by everyday Delawareans, too.
There’s just one caveat: none of the healthcare providers analyzed on the site are named.
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Unlike similar websites in states like New Hampshire and Maryland, Delawareans will not know which providers offer services at the lowest cost until an updated version of the site is introduced in the fall, according to Delaware Health Care Commission Executive Director Elisabeth Massa.
“We hope to make this (website) more useful as time goes on,” said Steven Constantino, Director of Health Care Reform for the health department. “But you have to start somewhere.”
In its current form, CostAware compares the commercial, Medicare and Medicaid prices of 12 common medical services and “episodes of care” for six providers across the state. It also calculates the quality of care for each provider.
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“Just because you’re paying a greater cost doesn’t mean necessarily that your quality is any better,” Massa said.
These metrics come in part from the Delaware Health Care Claims Database, which is not readily available to the public. Anyone who wants to review even a small portion of the database must pay a $400 application fee, followed by at least $20,000 annually.
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The new ability to be aware of these discrepancies in healthcare costs – even without knowing which care organizations are behind them – can still be helpful, Massa said. It can “empower” consumers, she explained, as well as help policymakers seeking to address the problem.
She attributed the current lack of providers’ names to the health department’s desire for a “soft rollout” in order to continue to tweak the site based on stakeholder feedback. In addition to adding identifiers to the next version, Massa said to expect updated healthcare cost data and an expanded menu of health services analyzed.
“We know that hospital services are critical, but we have to deal with the trends of these increasing costs and this is one tool that starts to peel that onion on what is driving the cost,” Constantino said.
Send story tips or ideas to Hannah Edelman at hedelman@delawareonline.com. For more reporting, follow them on Twitter at @h_edelman.
