Pioneer Institute to Present Results of New Consumer Poll Monday at State House Healthcare Price Transparency Event

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BOSTON – Pioneer Institute will present the results of a new consumer poll at “A Roadmap to Healthcare Price Transparency,” a forum by Pioneer and several partners, to be held Monday, November 4th from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. in the Great Hall of the State House. The event will mark the fifth anniversary of the effective date of Massachusetts’ healthcare price transparency laws which require both insurers and healthcare providers of all types to give consumers price information before they obtain healthcare services.

The poll, conducted under the auspices of David Paleologos of DAPA Research this past June, is a random sample of 500 Massachusetts residents who obtain health insurance through their employers. The results of the poll will reveal consumers’ attitudes towards healthcare price transparency, whom they trust when it comes to healthcare prices, how they feel about their insurers, how they would like to receive price information, what they think of cash incentives, and much more.

The forum on November 4 will feature welcoming remarks from Pioneer’s partners in this event: State Treasurer and Receiver General Deborah B. Goldberg; Undersecretary Edward Palleschi from the Massachusetts Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation; Michael Caljouw, Vice-President for Government and Regulatory Affairs, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts (BCBSMA); and Lora Pellegrini, President and CEO of the Massachusetts Association of Health Plans. Pioneer Senior Fellow in Healthcare Barbara Anthony will also give welcoming remarks.

Barbara Anthony, Seher Chowdhury, Research Assistant with Pioneer Institute, and Keith Horvath of DAPA Research, will present findings from the poll.

Former Massachusetts Group Insurance Commission Executive Director Dolores L. Mitchell will moderate a panel discussion about the poll and price transparency in general featuring Ateev Mehrotra, Associate Professor, Harvard Medical School;  Mark Galvin, President and CEO of MMS Analytics Inc. d/b/a MyMedicalShopper; Andrew Jackmauh, Chief of Staff of the Center for Health Information and Analysis; Lois Johnson, General Counsel, Massachusetts Health Policy Commission; Katie Holahan, Vice-President, Government Affairs, Associated Industries of Massachusetts; and Gary Anderson, Massachusetts Commissioner of Insurance.

Closing remarks will be given by Pioneer’s Executive Director James Stergios.

There will also be live demonstrations of cost estimator tools from Fallon Health, BCBSMA, Tufts Health Plan, Harvard Pilgrim, and CignaHealth.

Those wishing to attend the forum can sign up online.

About Pioneer

Pioneer Institute is an independent, non-partisan, privately funded research organization that seeks to improve the quality of life in Massachusetts through civic discourse and intellectually rigorous, data-driven public policy solutions based on free market principles, individual liberty and responsibility, and the ideal of effective, limited and accountable government.

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