07.16.2018

CHIA Plans to Release Data Set Explaining CompareCare

On Friday, the Center for Health Information & Analysis (CHIA) will post on the CompareCare website a spreadsheet containing the data it used to populate its procedure pricing tool.

CompareCare allows individuals to search and browse insurer payment data for 295 specific services using a number of filters, and lets users select a specific insurer to see payer-specific paid amounts.

With Friday’s posting, CHIA said it is expanding its commitment to transparency. While consumers probably have little use for the data, CHIA says policymakers, insurers, providers, employers, and researchers, “and also the consultants and digital health companies that use data to serve these stakeholders” will find the massive dataset useful.

“By making this data more freely available, stakeholders can benefit both from direct access to the data and also from the products, services, and analyses that will be available from third parties who access the data. This data can also support a more informed public dialogue about health care costs,” CHIA says.

The first release will mask the payer-specific prices and instead show multi-payer weighted average prices, but CHIA will be releasing the payer-specific prices before long.