Wisconsin Insurers To Provide Members Out-Of-Pocket Cost Estimates

The Wisconsin Association of Health Plans on Tuesday announced that 17 membercompanies will begin offering policyholders estimates of out-of-pocket healthcare costs before undergoing a test or procedure, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports.

The groupof insurers includes 13 of the 20 largest insurers in the state. Patients willbe required to provide detailed information about procedures to receive anaccurate estimate, and insurers will be able to provide "only very roughestimates" of the potential out-of-pocket costs for care receivedout-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 healthinsurers have better information to predict such costs, according to theassociation. The insurers will not provide information about the actual pricesof services nor which provider has the lowest prices (Boulton, MilwaukeeJournal Sentinel, 5/27).

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