The Wisconsin Hospital Association Information Center (WHAIC) is launching a modern redesign to its PricePoint tool enabling consumers, patients, and other users to easily access and compare
pricing information of health care services across the state.
The cornerstone feature of this redesign is a new plain-language search function, made possible by WHAIC partnering with Intelligent Medical Objects (IMO), known for capturing precise clinical data at the point of care and then standardizing it across settings and sources. The new search feature not only speeds up users’ research time but also allows apples-to-apples comparisons of health care costs across the state. This applies to both consumers and providers, by allowing them to search for generic terms, such as “mammogram,” or the CPT code, a standardized 5-digit code assigned to each unique health care service. Searches for either term produces information about multiple facilities’ median charges, average length of stay, and more for that particular service.
“Wisconsin has a long history of voluntary health care price transparency efforts by hospitals, with WHA’s PricePoint serving as the cornerstone of these efforts,” said Jennifer Mueller, Vice President, Wisconsin Hospital Association Information Center. “This user experience redesign is intended to assist consumers as they work with their health care provider and, importantly, their insurance company or other third-party payers to determine the financial obligations for hospital services they receive.”
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