FAIR Health Launches Tool to Search for Medical Procedure Costs Using Map of Body

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Jan 17, 2024, 06:45 ET

Body Part Procedure Locator Is Latest Enhancement to Free, Award-Winning FAIR Health Consumer Website

NEW YORK, Jan. 17, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Today FAIR Health launched the Body Part Procedure Locator, a tool that uses a map of the human body to help consumers identify medical procedures and their estimated costs in consumers' geographical locations. The Body Part Procedure Locator is the latest enhancement to FAIR Health Consumer, a free, national, award-winning website for consumers, available in English (fairhealthconsumer.org) and Spanish (fairhealthconsumidor.org).

To use this new method for finding medical costs, the consumer clicks on a body part—for example, the chest—to be directed to a submenu of options (e.g., heart, breast, lungs). Clicking on an option leads to categories of procedures (for example, for the heart, cardiac catheterization and echocardiogram), then to the most frequently searched procedure codes, a brief description of them and their in-network and out-of-network/uninsured costs.¹ Consumers have the option of expanding their search beyond the Body Part Procedure Locator to the general medical procedure cost lookup tool.

The Body Part Procedure Locator is intuitive, requiring only a knowledge of the part of the body that is affected. The consumer does not need advance knowledge of the relevant procedure code; instead, the tool guides the consumer from the affected body part to the most frequently searched codes.

In addition to offering medical and dental cost estimates, FAIR Health Consumer includes educational articles and resources about health insurance, shared decision-making tools, a shoppable services tool and a dedicated section for older adults.

The healthcare sector has consistently recognized the importance and effectiveness of FAIR Health's consumer tools, educational content and resources. Among other accolades, FAIR Health has won eHealthcare Leadership Awards every year from 2012 to the present. In that competition in 2023, FAIR Health Consumer received two Best Mobile Website awards, one for the English version and the other for the Spanish version. The Spanish version, FAIR Health Consumidor, won awards for Best Internet Home Page and Best Overall Internet. FAIR Health won a distinction for Best Social Media for its Facebook ad campaign spotlighting FAIR Health Consumer and fairhealthprovider.org, a site for providers focusing on shared decision making. FAIR Health's corporate website, fairhealth.org, won an award for Best Infectious Disease Communications. Finally, FAIR Health received the Mark Gothberg eHealthcare Organizational Commitment Award, the highest honor of the eHealthcare Leadership Awards, recognizing industry leadership, innovation and commitment.

FAIR Health President Robin Gelburd stated: "FAIR Health is excited to launch the Body Part Procedure Locator, a visual guidepost for consumers, especially those who are just starting to research medical cost information. It is the most recent example of the commitment to innovation and consumer-friendliness that has always marked FAIR Health Consumer."

To find the Body Part Procedure Locator, click here.

About FAIR Health

FAIR Health is a national, independent nonprofit organization that qualifies as a public charity under section 501(c)(3) of the federal tax code. It is dedicated to bringing transparency to healthcare costs and health insurance information through data products, consumer resources and health systems research support. FAIR Health possesses the nation's largest collection of private healthcare claims data, which includes over 44 billion claim records and is growing at a rate of over 2 billion claim records a year. FAIR Health licenses its privately billed data and data products—including benchmark modules, data visualizations, custom analytics and market indices—to commercial insurers and self-insurers, employers, providers, hospitals and healthcare systems, government agencies, researchers and others. Certified by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) as a national Qualified Entity, FAIR Health also receives data representing the experience of all individuals enrolled in traditional Medicare Parts A, B and D; FAIR Health includes among the private claims data in its database, data on Medicare Advantage enrollees. FAIR Health can produce insightful analytic reports and data products based on combined Medicare and commercial claims data for government, providers, payors and other authorized users. FAIR Health's systems for processing and storing protected health information have earned HITRUST CSF certification and achieved AICPA SOC 2 Type 2 compliance by meeting the rigorous data security requirements of these standards. As a testament to the reliability and objectivity of FAIR Health data, the data have been incorporated in statutes and regulations around the country and designated as the official, neutral data source for a variety of state health programs, including workers' compensation and personal injury protection (PIP) programs. FAIR Health data serve as an official reference point in support of certain state balance billing laws that protect consumers against bills for surprise out-of-network and emergency services. FAIR Health also uses its database to power a free consumer website available in English and Spanish, which enables consumers to estimate and plan for their healthcare expenditures and offers a rich educational platform on health insurance. An English/Spanish mobile app offers the same educational platform in a concise format and links to the cost estimation tools. The website has been honored by the White House Summit on Smart Disclosure, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), URAC, the eHealthcare Leadership Awards, appPicker, Employee Benefit News and Kiplinger's Personal Finance. For more information on FAIR Health, visit fairhealth.org.

Contact:
Rachel Kent
Senior Director of Communications and Marketing
FAIR Health
646-396-0795
[email protected]

¹ The in-network cost is the total fee negotiated between an insurance plan and a provider for an in-network service, including both the portion to be paid by the plan member and the portion to be paid by the plan. The out-of-network/uninsured cost is the amount charged to a patient who is uninsured or obtaining an out-of-network service.

SOURCE FAIR Health