Hospital cost information a click away

Several private companies offer hospital cost information online. The big three are Golden-based HealthGrades Inc., Chicago-based Subimo LLC and New York-based WebMD Health Corp. (Nasdaq: WBMD).

HealthGrades is known primarily for its quality ratings of hospitals, which are available at no charge at the company’s Web site. The company started making cost information for 55 different procedures available in April, said spokesman Scott Shapiro.

For $7.95, consumers can buy a Medical Cost Report for a specific procedure. The costs are based on regional averages compiled by 80 health-insurance providers, not specific hospitals, Shapiro said.

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“If you are in need of a hip replacement, you can buy one of these cost reports and see what the entire episode of care is likely to cost,” Shapiro said. Cost information includes laboratory and drug costs, as well as hospital and physician costs.

The report also is broken down into what different patients might pay depending on their circumstances, he said.

First is the “list price or non-negotiated price” for an uninsured patient, Shapiro said. “It’s like the sticker price on a car.”

Next is the average insurance-company negotiated price, which “can be as little as half of the list price,” he said. Then, “depending on your health plan you can see your likely out-of-pocket costs.”

WebMD and Subimo use a different business model than HealthGrades.

While HealthGrades is geared directly toward consumers, the other two focus on selling their services to large employers and health-insurance companies, providing a branded Web site for employees or health-plan customers.

Private-label WebMD and Subimo sites can be preloaded with employees’ and health-plan customers’ information including personal health data, preferred providers, prescriptions and so on.

WebMD, for example, has an interactive treatment cost estimator that lets users compare costs, length of stay, mortality rates and other data for hospitals and procedures. Users can try “what if” scenarios including traveling further to find a better hospital Individuals can access WebMD health manager on the public site as well, said spokeswoman MacLean Guthrie. The service is free for the first six months, then costs $29.95 per year. But it’s not as “robust” as the private-label sites, she said.

Subimo “tries to be the Intel inside to give consumer access to tools through their health plan or employer,´ said spokesman David Shevock. Subimo’s product is static, like HealthGrades’, and supplies information very similar to WebMD. It also has a $24 per year tool for users whose employers or health plans don’t have the product.

These cost-comparison Web sites are helpful to a certain level, said Katy Henrickson, senior analyst in the health-care and life sciences practice of Forrester Research, who tracks the health-care industry. But they all lack the same thing – information at the provider-specific level for things like physical therapy, chiropractic, colonoscopies and MRIs, she said.