CMS Care Compare Empowers Patients When Making Important Health Care Decisions
Today, under the leadership of
For more than 20 years, Medicare's online compare tools have served as the cornerstone for publicizing quality care information for patients, caregivers, consumers, and the healthcare community. Today's announcement builds on the eMedicare initiative that first launched by the
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Currently, someone who is planning to have bypass surgery would need to visit
Patients will also find helpful hints and guides throughout Care Compare. For example, when searching for a nursing home, patients have the ability to utilize a checklist with common questions and considerations when selecting a nursing home. While the measures and data used for Care Compare have not changed, the way information is displayed is now different. During a transition period, consumers and other stakeholders will be able to use the original eight compare tools while CMS continues to gather feedback and considers additional improvements to the tool. As new information about quality and cost are added to the compare tools, Care Compare will be updated to reflect that information.
In conjunction with the launch of Care Compare, additional improvements have been made to other CMS data tools to help Medicare beneficiaries compare costs. The Procedure Price Look Up (PPL) tool now includes physician fees in addition to facility fees, offering people with Medicare a more accurate prediction of the true out-of-pocket costs. The Provider Data Catalog (PDC) better serves innovators and stakeholders who are interested in detailed CMS data and use interactive and downloadable datasets like those currently available on data.Medicare.gov. The PDC now makes quality datasets available through an improved Application Programming Interface (API), allowing innovators in the field to easily access and analyze the CMS publicly reported data and make it useful for patients. In addition, the PPL now makes data available through an API, and integrates Current Procedural Terminology code data from the
Other new tools launched under the eMedicare initiative include:
* A completely redesigned Medicare Plan Finder Tool for last Open Enrollment;
* "What's Covered" app that tells people what's covered and what's not in Original Medicare;
* A price transparency tool that lets consumers compare Medicare payments and copayments for certain procedures performed in both hospital outpatient departments and ambulatory surgical centers;
* Interactive online decision support to help people better understand and evaluate their Medicare coverage options and costs between Original Medicare and Medicare Advantage;
* An online service that lets people quickly see how different coverage choices will affect their estimated out-of-pocket costs
* Webchat option in Medicare Plan Finder helps people get on-the-spot support; and
* Easy-to-use surveys across Medicare.gov so patients and consumers can continue to offer feedback about their online experiences.
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