17 Wisconsin Insurers To Provide Members Out-of-Pocket Cost Estimates
The Wisconsin Association of Health Plans on Tuesday announced that 17 member companies will begin offering policyholders estimates of out-of-pocket health care costs before undergoing a test or procedure, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports. The group of insurers includes 13 of the 20 largest insurers in the state. Patients will be required to provide detailed information about procedures to receive an accurate estimate, and insurers will be able to provide "only very rough estimates" of the potential out-of-pocket costs for care received out-of-network. All 17 insurers will make the estimates available by Sept. 1.
Some health systems also will offer out-of-pocket cost estimates, but health insurers have better information to predict such costs, according to the association. The insurers will not provide information about the actual prices of services nor which provider has the lowest prices (Boulton, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 5/27).
