State Launches Consumer-Friendly Website Comparing Health Care Quality and Costs

BOSTON - Members of the Massachusetts Health Care Quality and Cost Council (HCQCC) gathered with members of the Legislature, health care advocates and consumers today for the launch of an interactive website designed to promote transparency in the health care industry. The "My Health Care Options" website, mandated as part of Massachusetts' historic health care reform initiative, was developed to help control costs and improve the quality of care available to patients.

The website represents a significant achievement in ongoing, multipronged efforts to control rising health care costs and ensure that residents of Massachusetts can get the best care available. These efforts are particularly important as the Patrick Administration and its partners in the Legislature continue to move forward in implementing health care reform. More than 442,000 people have enrolled in health insurance programs since 2006, and Massachusetts now has the lowest rate of uninsurance in the country.

The new site (www.mass.gov/myhealthcareoptions) is the first of its kind in the nation to offer consumers, providers, employers, and policymakers comparative cost and quality information about medical procedures performed at Massachusetts hospitals and outpatient facilities. For example, a patient considering knee replacement surgery, angioplasty or a mammogram can now visit the site to compare cost and quality measures for those and other procedures at various local hospitals.

"Transparency is vitally important in both controlling costs and improving quality in the health care industry," said Secretary of Health and Human Services Dr. JudyAnn Bigby, who also chairs the Council. "While it remains to be seen how improved access to price and quality information will impact decision-making, our hope is that the website will empower consumers to spend health care dollars more efficiently and motivate providers to improve quality and decrease their costs."

"Today, another piece of our landmark health reform falls into place," said House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi. "Through the collaborative work of the Council, we will all benefit from reliable and accessible comparative health care data on the new website and look forward to the potential for gains in quality and cost-containment."

State Representative Patricia Walrath added, "I am very pleased that the Health Care Cost and Quality Council's consumer website will be up and running today. It is an important step in improving transparency in the health care system, and it is my hope that it will help people to make more informed decisions about their health care."

"This cost information shown on the website will help consumers and employers understand what their health insurance premiums pay for," said HCQCC Executive Director Katharine London. "Having this information will help all sectors of the health care system work together to bring those costs under control."

"Massachusetts hospitals are committed to improving care and increasing transparency," said Karen Nelson, MPA, RN, Massachusetts Hospital Association's Senior Vice President for Clinical Affairs and a member of the HCQCC's Advisory Committee. "We strongly support the launch of this website as an important first step in the state's efforts to help consumers make more informed health care decisions. We look forward to continuing our work with the Council and other health care stakeholders to ensure that the HCQCC website provides accurate information that helps people better understand the true costs of care, and allows providers, payers and the public to compare measures and focus on specific areas for improvement."

"No one understands better than retailing how educated and savvy the consumer can be if they are given the proper tools they want on product cost and quality," said Jon B. Hurst, President of the Retailers Association of Massachusetts. "Providing these competitive tools to consumers of health care will ultimately mean fairer and more reasonable costs, but more important, better quality for all of us."

The development of this new cost and quality website compliments a broad range of cost and quality initiatives underway both within the Council and across state government. Last spring, the Council issued a number of recommendations for improving quality of care and containing health care costs in Massachusetts. The Council is currently developing a "Roadmap to Cost Containment" that will specify ways that sectors of the health care system can work together to contain costs.

In addition, as part of the Patrick Administration's HealthyMass initiative, nine state agencies are working together to decrease administrative burdens on providers; adopt strategies to improve quality of care; focus on decreasing the impacts of chronic disease; and align payments to support primary care and community hospitals.

About the Health Care Quality and Cost Council

The Massachusetts Health Care Quality and Cost Council was established by Chapter 58 of the Acts of 2006 to establish statewide goals for improving health care quality, containing health care costs, and reducing racial and ethnic disparities in health care and to demonstrate progress toward achieving those goals. The Council is also charged with disseminating, through a consumer-friendly website and other media, comparative health care cost, quality, and related information for consumers, health care providers, health plans, employers, policy-makers, and the general public.

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