FAIR Health’s Consumer Site Continues to Expand Its Offerings
September 19, 2024
Central to FAIR Health’s mission of healthcare transparency is our free, award-winning website for consumers, fairhealthconsumer.org. Launched in 2011, FAIR Health Consumer continues to expand its offerings. It now features comprehensive treatment cost estimation tools, as well as resources to advance health literacy among diverse healthcare populations, including enhanced older adult resources, shared decision-making tools and more.
Comprehensive Cost Estimation Tools
Powered by our vast database of commercial claim records, the cost estimation tools on FAIR Health Consumer are used by consumers across the country to look up typical costs for medical and dental procedures. FH® Medical Cost Estimator lets consumers pick among costs for physician services and supplies, urgent care, telehealth, and inpatient and outpatient facility. Costs can be searched by CPT®1 code or keyword, or by selecting from a menu. To improve accessibility, the Body Part Procedure Locator also allows consumers to easily access cost information based on the area of the body that is affected.
Using FH Medical Cost Estimator, consumers are able to estimate what a procedure will cost in their own geographic areas if they are uninsured or, if insured, are going out of network. They also can estimate the in-network price. A local price comparison tab allows them to see what the same procedure would cost in nearby areas. Feedback from consumers has shown that access to the cost information has facilitated constructive negotiations about prices for healthcare services with their providers and/or discussions with health plan officials if there are questions regarding their explanation of benefits. For dental costs, consumers can find the same functionality in FH® Dental Cost Estimator.
The FH® Total Treatment Cost tool allows consumers to estimate costs for chronic and acute conditions, as well as event-based procedures. For these cost estimates, a Medicare price is also included. For more than 300 shoppable services, consumers can browse or search for a specific service using the Shoppable Services tool.
All of the costs on the site are put in context with an original educational curriculum about health insurance, including FH® Insurance Basics articles, resource links, a healthcare quality toolkit and a glossary.
Resources to Advance Health Literacy among Diverse Healthcare Populations
FAIR Health has received several foundation grants to expand the use of its data to power consumer-oriented tools that advance health insurance literacy and support healthcare decision making. Developed with the help of consumer literacy experts, FAIR Health Consumer was translated into Spanish (including medical and dental procedure codes) as fairhealthconsumidor.org and adapted as an English/Spanish mobile app, FH® Consumer Classroom, to better serve Spanish-speaking and bilingual communities.
Tens of thousands of users visit FAIR Health Consumer each month, attracted in part by robust dissemination and outreach campaigns that include the “Healthy Decisions for Health Aging” campaign, designed to bring awareness to a dedicated section of the consumer site, fairhealtholderadults.org. FAIR Health for Older Adults is targeted to adults aged 65 and older and their family caregivers and contains resources and decision aids with cost information for health conditions that are more likely to affect older people, such as hip osteoarthritis, spinal stenosis, early-stage breast cancer and fast-growing prostate cancer, among others. FAIR Health for Older Adults also offers a patient and caregiver Toolkit for Healthy Aging with checklists designed to facilitate shared decision making—the process in which patients, providers and caregivers make medical decisions together, balancing patient preferences with clinical evidence.
In addition to our tools for older adults, a shared decision-making section of the site includes other tools and resources to help patients and their clinicians decide on care together. Currently, the site offers tools that combine clinical and cost information to support palliative care decisions for patients and their caregivers. These tools include ventilator options, nutrition options and dialysis options for people who are seriously ill. Another set of tools is geared toward people of color, with decision aids for uterine fibroids, type 2 diabetes and slow-growing prostate cancer—conditions that disproportionately affect people of color.
Broadening Our Reach and Value
Outside of our campaigns, FAIR Health promotes the consumer site by engaging organizational partners. Several organizations “private-label” the site for their members with their own branding and contact information. The site is also often mentioned in notable press outlets, such as NBC News, Radiology Business, Consumer Reports, WBZ News, McKnights Long-Term Care News and Medscape. In addition, FAIR Health Consumer has received multiple unsolicited mentions on social media outlet TikTok, which continue to spark more visitors to the site.
The site and tools themselves are evaluated by consumers through surveys and qualitative discussions. The results of these evaluations suggest that the website improves consumers’ ability to navigate the healthcare system. Our shared decision-making tools for specific conditions have also been favorably received by consumers and providers alike.
The winner of numerous awards, FAIR Health Consumer is widely regarded as a model for consumer healthcare price transparency.
FAIR Health President Robin Gelburd stated: “We are proud of the diversity of the offerings on FAIR Health Consumer. As the site continues to expand, we hope to bring even more clarity to the workings of the complex healthcare system.”
To visit FAIR Health Consumer, click here.
1 CPT © 2023 American Medical Association (AMA). All rights reserved.