Calif. Agency, UCSF To Create Health Care Pricing, Quality Database
On Wednesday, the California Department of Insurance announced an agreement with UC-San Francisco to create a price and quality database that will provide consumers with information about common health care services, Payers & Providers reports.
The health care prices and quality transparency project is funded by a $5.2 million grant from HHS (Shinkman, Payers & Providers, 6/19). It was awarded to DOI as part of an initiative under the Affordable Care Act.
Details of Project
Under the agreement, researchers at UCSF's Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies will collect and analyze information to provide price and quality data on "common medical procedures and episodes of care" (DOI release, 6/18).
Researchers will examine data from private insurers and Medicare to determine average costs, outcomes and quality data for geographic regions within California, according to officials.
California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones (D) and Adams Dudley, associate director for research at the Lee Institute, said a website with the price and quality data is slated to go live by summer 2015 (Payers & Providers, 6/19).
The university also will initiate a collaborative process to:
- Gather stakeholder feedback about the database;
- Create partnerships with interested parties; and
- Ensure the project provides useful information to various audiences (DOI release, 6/18).
In addition, Consumers Union will contribute to the project by:
- Providing outreach to patients;
- Helping to design a user-friendly website; and
- Launching a social media campaign (Payers & Providers, 6/19).