Dive Brief:
- The Health Care Cost Institute launched its healthcare price comparison website Guroo.com on Wednesday, showcasing data provided by United Healthcare, Humana, Aetna and Assurant Health. The site serves the current trend toward providing transparency for consumers, and steering insurance enrollees toward preferred healthcare providers.
- Guroo currently helps consumers compare prices for more than 70 common services that they can shop around for ahead of time.
- Critics note that a limitation of the site is that it doesn't break down what the consumer pays vs. what the insurer pays, so it's "better to think of the price platform as more of a guide," the creator says.
Dive Insight:
While numerous price transparency tools have become available, particularly from insurers to their own consumers, Guroo stands out with its compilation of data from multiple insurers.
"It's data that no one else has," David Newman, executive director of the Health Care Cost Institute, tells The Washington Post.
As the Post notes, questions remain about how much patients are making use of price transparency tools and how much the effort actually translates into an ability for consumers and insurers to save money.
Then there's the question of whether it will impact providers. "There are some [medical providers] who’ve said this is really going to affect our bottom line and be really difficult for us to deal with," Newman told the Washington Post.