This is a refreshing sentence: We have another entrant in the increasingly crowded health transparency space.
The non-profit Health Care Cost Institute today unveiled Guroo.com, which the group says provides some the most accurate estimates for medical procedures on the web.
Institute Executive Director David Newman stated a site like Guroo could help the growing number of consumers using high-deductible health plans and Health Savings Accounts to manage their spending.
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The pricing currently covers about 70 procedures and is culled from claims data from Aetna, Assurant Health, Humana and UnitedHealthcare. Other health insurance companies will add their data later this year, the group stated.
The site is one-part healthcare window shopping and another part WebMD. Users enter in a condition or test, the site automatically determines your location and then provides a cost estimate: comparing national, state and local averages (you can get one figure or a price range). There are also details on what to expect at a visit, how to prepare and links to similar conditions and treatments.
There’s no call-to-action on the site, meaning you can’t make an appointment or lock in a price with a specific doctor. Newman stated Guroo is only meant to simply deliver clear, accurate cost information for consumers spending more of their own money.
“With rising prices and more consumers enrolled in high-deductible health plans, consumers are eager to get the best value out of every dollar they spend on health care,” he stated in a release.
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However, Guroo will soon add out-of-pocket expense information and provider quality measures for customers whose insurance companies are contributing data to the site. Other updates will include adding more conditions and pricing; incorporating quality information and prescription costs; and developing a Spanish-language version.
