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New Mass. Requirement Means Insurers Provide Health Care Cost Calculators
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WBUR's health care reporter Martha Bebinger has spent years trying to develop her own health care calculators. She's shopped for MRIs, X-rays, colonoscopies and bone density tests.
But much of that shopping has been seriously labor intensive — and it's unlikely you've personally set out on days-long health cost investigations yourself. In fact, up until now, consumers have sought health care with little to no knowledge of the cost in advance — a practice that often results in sticker shock.
However, it's expected to get a whole lot easier to learn the price of a procedure, test, or doctor's visit before it happens, because of a new requirement in Massachusetts that all insurers offer members real-time online information about cost.
Guest
Martha Bebinger, WBUR reporter covering health care. She tweets @mbebinger.
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- "As I interviewed people connected with healthcare in Massachusetts earlier this year, one name kept coming up: Martha Bebinger, the health correspondent for WBUR. 'Martha is the best,' said Steve Walsh, a former state legislator and now head of the Massachusetts Council of Community Hospitals, in a typical comment. 'She looks at the marketplace.'"
WBUR: Ask About The Quality Of Your Colonoscopy: It Matters
- "Someday soon, you’ll need a routine medical test, perhaps an ultrasound or a mammogram, and you’ll obviously want the best. But the quality of health care tests and procedures can vary a lot depending on the doctor or hospital, and it’s not easy for patients to find information about quality."
This segment aired on October 7, 2014.