New CostAware website dissects health care spending

A website called CostAware launched this month to help Delawareans understand how their health care dollars are spent.

It compares average costs for various episodes of care and services based on actual medical claims in Delaware. The site was launched by the state Department of Health and Social Services.

DHSS said the portal reports prices for five common procedures — cardiac services, cesarean section births, emergency department visits, knee and hip replacements, and vaginal deliveries — at the six hospital systems in Delaware.

The costs across five accountable-care organizations are also compared for seven frequent services — blood counts, colonoscopies, doctor visits, hemoglobin A1C tests, head CT scans, lumbar spine MRIs and screening mammographies.

The rates are based on 2019 claims in the Delaware Health Care Claims Database and reflect the cost consumers and their insurers actually paid, according to DHSS.

Quality measures are also provided, including readmission and utilization rates, as well as patient satisfaction scores, all from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services as part of its Hospital Compare and Medicare Shared Savings programs. Each episode of care and service can be filtered further by the type of insurance: commercial, Medicare Advantage and Medicaid.

The website also breaks down the average monthly cost of care for each member of an accountable-care organization and the top procedures for several age and gender groups, based on overall volume and dollar volume.

“This kind of transparency and public awareness of health care spending is important for everyone in the system — consumers, health care providers, taxpayers, insurers and businesses,” DHSS Secretary Molly Magarik said in a statement. “We all want good value for the health care dollars we do spend. CostAware offers a glimpse into the actual costs that Delawareans and their insurers are paying, and the quality measures associated with that care.”

Hospital systems are not identified in this initial version of Cost-Aware. Ms. Magarik said she hopes to include that information in future iterations.

CostAware was developed by DHSS, the Delaware Health Care Commission and the Delaware Health Information Network. The three agencies began implementing various health care cost and quality analyses in early 2020.

DHSS said these analyses leverage data in the Delaware Health Care Claims Database, which was established through legislation in 2016. DHIN manages that database, and DHSS uses it to support a variety of policy initiatives.

Staff writer Tim Mastro can be reached at tmastro@iniusa.org. Follow @TimMastroDSN on Twitter.