Website contains pricing data for more than 40 commercially insured individuals

A website launched this week hopes to bring more transparency to healthcare prices. The website, called Guroo, contains data derived from three billion claims from more than 40 million individuals with private commercial insurance.

The Health Care Cost Institute (HCCI), an independent, non-profit organization, created the website in partnership with several health insurers including Aetna, Assurant Health, Humana and UnitedHealthcare. HCCI was founded in 2011 as a research institute that evaluates what drives healthcare costs and utilization in the U.S.

David Newman, HCCI’s executive director, said in an interview with HealthExec.com that the data on Guroo includes consumer out-of-pocket and insurer contributions that providers received. The claims information includes the amounts paid for co-pays, co-insurance and deductibles.

Newman said Guroo is similar to Edmunds, a website that provides consumers with information on cars and allows them to compare prices in their region.

“If you don’t have insurance or you’re in a high-deductible health plan and you’re looking for information, this tells you what people are paying in your market,” Newman said. “I don’t think anyone would refute this comment--this is the largest dataset available for public reporting for transparency purposes in the country.”

Guroo now has estimated costs for more than 70 common health services. Newman said HCCI is currently evaluating an additional 214 health services and expects to post more information on those services in June or July.

Since the website launched on Wednesday, providers have suggested other care bundles they think would be relevant for price transparency, according to Newman. For instance, an OB/GYN contacted Newman and told him about the most common procedure and test OB/GYN’s perform.

Providers have had a mixed reaction to the website.

“There’s always a spectrum of opinion on these things,” Newman said. “There are providers who want no transparency and there are providers who believe that this is the future and they just have to deal with it, even embrace it. It runs the entire continuum. It’s not surprising.”

HCCI has published annual reports since 2012 on the healthcare costs and utilization trends in the U.S. for people covered by commercial insurance. The data has mostly been made available to academic researchers, but HCCI also wants to provide information for consumers through Guroo and another website set to launch late this year or in early 2016.

With that website, people who have coverage through one of the participating insurers can log on using an ID and password and check the out-of-pocket expenses they will pay given how much of their deductible has been paid.

By the end of 2015, HCCI will also have all of the pricing data from Medicare, giving the organization information on a total of 100 million individuals.

“All of the insurers are welcome to participate, and they’re all welcome to participate on the same terms,” Newman said. “We want them to participate. This is very much like a public utility model. It’s a shared resource that can be used by insurers across the board.”

Tim Casey,

Executive Editor

Tim Casey joined TriMed Media Group in 2015 as Executive Editor. For the previous four years, he worked as an editor and writer for HMP Communications, primarily focused on covering managed care issues and reporting from medical and health care conferences. He was also a staff reporter at the Sacramento Bee for more than four years covering professional, college and high school sports. He earned his undergraduate degree in psychology from the University of Notre Dame and his MBA degree from Georgetown University.

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