Transparency Is a Beautiful Thing

Over the past few years, individuals have progressively became responsible for paying more out of pocket for their medical costs. This is due to augmented co-payments and deductibles in their health plans, as well as the scarce network of providers accepting their insurance. The Health Care Cost Institute (HCCI) is working to add transparency to the healthcare marketplace. This new cost transparency will be a "positive" for most consumers because it will allow them to not only shop for the best deal, but also to bargain with providers for a better price. This is increasingly important, because more and more patients have high-deductible plans in order to lower premiums. The HCCI hopes to have this data available to the public in early 2015. As of now, three major health insurers have agreed to share information. Aetna, Humana, and UnitedHealth care are the pioneers in transparency, with other expected to follow. This online "transparency tool" will aggregate pricing data from commercial health plans, as well as Medicare Advantage and Medicaid plans if nonprofits gets individual states to share information. Cost data will be supplemented with information about the quality of care and other data to help consumers "make more informed decisions about health care". This major step forward will help control healthcare costs, which account for 20 percent of the U.S. economy.

EVERA. Everyone should feel this good about healthcare.  

Source: http://www.cnbc.com/id/101672099