Three major insurers are partnering with a not-for-profit group to provide consumers with greater access to healthcare cost information, the group announced this morning.
Aetna, Humana and UnitedHealthcare will work with the Health Care Cost Institute to provide consumers an online look at price and quality of various healthcare services. The new portal is expected to go live in 2015.
“Consumers, employers and regulatory agencies will now have a single source of consistent, transparent health care information based on the most reliable data available, including actual costs, which only insurers currently have,” said David Newman, executive director of HCCI. “Voluntarily making this information available will be of immeasurable value to consumers and other health system participants as they seek to manage the cost and quality of care.”
The new portal will aggregate data from commercial health plans along with Medicare Advantage and Medicare health plans, if states agree, the group’s announcement outlined. The site is expected to be used not only by consumers but also by employers, care providers, regulators and payers.
Insurers will provide data to the institute which will maintain and manage access to the portal. Other insurers have expressed interest and could be part of the project by its expected 2015 launch, the institute said.
The institute was started in 2011 to promote research and analysis of U.S. healthcare spending.
