by When you receive a health care service, don’t you wish you could know what the cost might likely be?
To support price transparency, hospitals stand behind the creation of an All Payer Claims Data Base. This is a data base that would allow you to see the cost of everything that might be part of your health care experience – from pharmaceuticals, to physician charges, to the hospital stay. Indiana’s General Assembly passed, with hospital support, a bill to create an APCD, as it’s called. Learn more about all that it will tell you.
Indiana is One Step Closer to Price Transparency with Passage of All Payer Claims Database
Some states that have implemented APCDs use the data to create a website for consumers to view their out-of-pocket costs and compare prices for health care services. Colorado’s database, which experts consider one of the best in the country, allows the public to see prices for a procedure (doctor, medications, rehabilitation services, etc.). Users can select a specific service, like a colonoscopy, and enter a ZIP code. An interactive chart then lists facilities, the distance from the ZIP code, the average price, a price range and a quality-of-care rating based on five stars. Colorado patients can sort the list by facility name, distance, average price (low to high or high to low) and patient experience (high to low).
Hoosiers want to know up front what they can expect to pay for health care. Indiana hospitals are committed to providing consumers the information they need to make informed health care decisions. But to get the full picture, it takes data from all parties involved in a simple health procedure – hospitals, physicians, pharmacies, insurance companies, and others – to get to the total price a patient can expect to pay for their health care service.
Hospitals supported legislation that passed the Indiana General Assembly in March of 2020 to establish an All Payer Claims Database (APCD) for the State of Indiana. The APCD is a state database that include hospital, physician, pharmacy, dental, and insurance claims data, including public payers like Medicare and Medicaid, and private insurance. More than 20 states have some type of All Payer Claims Database and rely on them to provide comprehensive, accurate data on price, usage, and quality across the board to see the full picture of health care costs. The APCD provides important insight for policy makers into factors that drive health care costs and how to improve health outcomes. That information includes tracking trends and cost drivers, estimating the prevalence and cost of chronic disease and understanding prescription drug spending and use.
IHA continues to advocate for this consumer-facing use of an APCD to be the next step for Indiana.
