(Colorado Newsline) Colorado leaders announced a new tool Tuesday that will allow people in need of care from a hospital to search and compare prices across hospitals and insurance plans.

The Colorado Hospital Price Finder is a free online tool created by PatientRightsAdvocate.org, a national nonprofit that advocates health care price transparency, where Coloradans can search for procedure pricing by hospital, city or ZIP code. It uses data generated by a 2022 Colorado law that requires hospitals to disclose procedure pricing and prohibits them from pursuing debt collection if the hospital is not in compliance with federal reporting requirements.

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“For too long, one of the reasons that Americans are forced to spend so much on health care is that there’s been a very secretive pricing system where it’s very difficult to find out who pays how much for what procedure,” Colorado Governor Jared Polis said at a press conference Tuesday. “Even at the very same hospital and the very same procedure, there might be a number of different rates that people pay depending on their insurer or if they’re paying it themselves.”

The tool can help patients determine where they can get a procedure for the least amount of money. Polis, a Democrat, said someone looking to schedule a cesarean section, for example, would pay $10,293 at Boulder Community Health or $15,219 at CommonSpirit Penrose Hospital under the same Aetna plan.

It can also show how hospitals will charge different insurers for different procedures, which Polis said can help insurers negotiate better reimbursement rates. For example, Polis said AdventHealth Parker would charge a United plan $930 and a Cigna plan $630 for a standard emergency room visit.

A recent survey from the Colorado Consumer Health Initiative found that over two-thirds of adults in Colorado delayed or went without health care over the past year because it was too expensive despite the state’s efforts to enact policy around health care price transparency and saving.

Polis said a lack of pricing transparency means competition in the health care industry doesn’t work as it would in a normal market to bring down costs. While he said Colorado’s pricing transparency law is “the strongest and best in the country,” he said Virginia passed a similar law and other states are considering new policies.

For too long, one of the reasons that Americans are forced to spend so much on health care is that there's been a very secretive pricing system where it's very difficult to find out who pays how much for what procedure.

– Governor Jared Polis

Cynthia Fisher, founder and chair of PatientRightsAdvocate.org, said the Affordable Care Act requires price transparency nationally, but Colorado’s law allows the state to enforce it. She said this has led to Colorado’s 50 percent compliance rate compared to 34 percent in the rest of the country. Polis added that Colorado’s compliance will “grow rapidly as hospitals face sanctions for lack of compliance, including the inability to collect their debts.”

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Fisher said Colorado patients can go to ColoradoHospitalPrices.com to compare their medical bill to the prices listed to ensure they were charged appropriately. If someone’s bill doesn’t match what they find online, the patient should first contact their insurer to see if their information matches, and also follow up with the hospital if necessary to resolve the discrepancies, Polis said.

“We want stronger measures to address incorrect billing and overbilling, but this tool will help people figure out if they were in fact billed the correct amount,” Polis said.

While Colorado’s Department of Health Care Policy and Financing already announced a hospital price transparency toolthe state created in September, PatientRightsAdvocate.org is a national nonprofit that created its first version of the tool using the data Colorado law made more accessible. The organization intends to expand the tool to other states as well.

“As we continue to roll out new tools and resources, our focus remains clear: to cut costs, improve access to high quality care, and ensure that Coloradans can keep more of their hard-earned money,” Colorado Lt. Governor Dianne Primavera, who leads the state’s Office of Saving People Money on Health Care, said at the press conference. “We believe that when health care is affordable, we all thrive, and that’s exactly what we’re building here in Colorado.”

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