Health Care Corner: Compare In Patient/Out Patient hospital pricing

(Ed. note. Click on the post to see the new web site that details pricing.)

NEWS
Contact: Mary Kay Grasmick, 608-274-1820 or 608-575-7516 (cell)
Consumers Can Compare Hospital Prices in Wisconsin
Enhanced PricePoint Web site features inpatient and outpatient data
MADISON (November 1, 2006) ----- Wisconsin’s groundbreaking PricePoint
Web site just got better.

Since the Web site was launched in February 2005, health care consumers have
been able to check hospital charge and utilization information related to any type
of inpatient stay at any hospital. Now, for the first time, they can check on
charges for hospital outpatient procedures—those done without an overnight
stay—at the same Internet location, www.wipricepoint.org. The new outpatient
feature displays charge and utilization information for approximately 30 highvolume
outpatient surgeries and invasive diagnostic procedures.

It is just one of several enhancements to PricePoint released today by the WHA
Information Center, a subsidiary of the Wisconsin Hospital Association.
Since its introduction, the PricePoint Web site has been visited approximately
130,000 times by consumers, employers and other health care purchasers.
“Many services done in the hospital don’t require an overnight stay,” according to
Joe Kachelski, vice president of the WHA Information Center. “Adding that
information to the Web site, along with several other new tools, will make it even
more helpful to consumers when they are choosing a hospital,” he added. A new
consumer information tab provides links to all Wisconsin hospitals, major insurers
and a number of health care consumer resources.

The new version of PricePoint allows users to compare hospital inpatient charge
data for up to four hospitals at the same time. In addition, users can compare
inpatient charges according to the severity of illness within a particular service
category.

“Hospitals may treat a similar number of patients with a particular condition, but
the patients may be very different in terms of the severity of that condition.
Generally, patients with a higher severity of illness will stay in the hospital longer
and incur higher charges compared to patients with a lower severity of illness,”
Kachelski said.
By separating patients into severity-of-illness categories, users can compare
charges and lengths of stay among patients who are the most similar in terms of
their medical conditions.

“PricePoint provides tangible evidence of Wisconsin hospitals’ commitment to
pricing transparency and it positions Wisconsin as a national leader,” Kachelski
noted. Kachelski said by early 2007, at least ten other state hospital associations
will be using a PricePoint system under contract with WHA Information Center.
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