Florida Healthfinder
The Florida Agency for Health Care Administration (Agency) launched Florida Health Price Finder, a new health care transparency tool for consumers. Pricing is broken down by state average, national average, and county average, providing Florida residents the opportunity to find the best price for their medical needs. The average amounts paid by insurance plans are based on billions of lines of claims data from three Florida health plans.
The website lists services as “care bundles,” s. A care bundle adds together all of the services that are normally involved in a health care procedure. The bundles are made up of logical “steps” that group costs in a way that makes sense to patients. For example, a person thinking about having surgery needs to know:
Step 1. How much will it cost to visit a doctor and get testing to prepare for surgery?
Step 2. How much will the surgery cost? (Patients need to know the total cost of the surgery, including
the hospital or surgery center bill, the doctor’s bill, and other providers who might bill separately.)
Step 3. How much will rehabilitation or physical therapy cost if I need it?
Step 4. How much will my follow-up care cost?
Floridians have been able to use FloridaHealthFinder.gov to look up undiscounted hospital charges, however, this is rarely the amount that individuals or insurance companies are expected to pay. Now, with this new tool, and in conjunction with working with their respective insurance plans, Floridians have the opportunity to get a much better estimate of out-of-pocket costs for specific services.