Kudos To CHIA On Major Step Toward Greater Healthcare Price Transparency

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Pioneer applauds the Center for Health Information and Analysis (CHIA) on its recent release of all data behind its consumer facing CompareCare pricing tool for Massachusetts consumers. The CHIA CompareCare tool contains payer- provider specific data for 295 common procedures. To access each payer-provider-procedure, consumers have to search the CHIA tool. For several years, Pioneer, along with other transparency advocates, has argued for more wholesale release of the underlying claims data collected by CHIA. Pioneer has urged the legislature and CHIA to break new ground and release such data in wholesale form so that researchers, policy makers, employers and consumers can benefit.

As a state agency, CHIA collects data on fee-for-service amounts individual insurers pay to each commercial provider in the state for each healthcare service or procedure. CHIA’s recent release of the data behind CompareCare shows provider-specific average contractual prices for the 295 procedures.

“This is an important and innovative step forward in advancing healthcare price transparency in the Commonwealth,” said Jim Stergios, Executive Director of Pioneer Institute. “We are also pleased to learn from CHIA that it intends future data releases will also be payer-specific,” he added.

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