MHI Benefits Group Expands MyHealthSavingsUSA™ Price Transparency Program to Report 1400+ Services

May 2, 2012 - PRLog -- Maria Todd, MHA PhD, CEO and founder of MHI Benefits Group today announced that the My Health Savings USA™ program is now able to report detailed in-network healthcare provider prices on over 1400 procedure codes.

"Now employees of our client companies can make one quick call to a Care Navigator™ concierge, check actual provider prices on their in-network panel of providers and get a check for up to $75 just for choosing a lower cost provider!  The money for bonus checks comes from employers- who agree to share savings to the health plan with them for being a prudent shopper.

About 1450 individual procedures are included in the My Health Savings USA™ program. Employees can call and ask about prices for

Allergy testing
Arthrograms
Bone Scans
Capsule endoscopy procedures
Cardiac stress tests
Carotid artery studies
Carotid vascular studies
CT Scans
Doppler studies
Echocardiograms
EMG and nerve conduction studies
Endoscopy procedures
Fertility testing
High cost lab tests
High cost x-rays
Infertility procedures (IVF and ICSI)
Lung performance tests
Mammograms
Minor surgical procedures
MRA Scans
MRI Scans
Nuclear medicine studies
Peripheral vascular studies
PET scans
Screening colonoscopy
Sleep studies
Specialized hearing tests
Specialized vision tests
Ultrasound studies

These services have been selected because they generally don't require an employee to change doctors or break long established provider relationships. On the financial side, these services are generally responsible for about 30% of annual claims costs for most employers, and sometimes, the prices for these services within the network panel of providers can vary by as much as 250% between providers around the corner from one another.

Todd says, "Pricing for healthcare services matters to employees when they have high deductible health plans and have to pay up to $4000 in deductibles before their health plan pays a portion of claims costs. It also matters when they have to pay 20-40% of the bill out of pocket.  Our program is proving to be of most interest for services that are routine – tests, outpatient minor elective surgeries and diagnostic procedures, medications, and so on."  

As an added benefit to the MyHealthSavingsUSA™ Price Transparency Program, a discount pharmacy card is included that instantly processes any manufacturer rebates and coupons and deposits that cash onto a stored value MasterCard. The cash deposited can be spent anywhere the employee likes. No coupons or forms have to be completed to get the rebates. The pharmacy program also provides similar price transparency on all FDA medications - using an online self-service look up portal.

Additionally, price information for such services is of optimal value when it is provided at at a time when a consumer can match the price for a specific service with corresponding in-network information and the names and actual prices for local providers.

In some cases, employers have also arranged for special pricing on annual checkup packages and special surgery packages through designated providers, which we can provide pricing data on.

Unlike its competitors who provide data from generic, publicly accessible data from "billed charges" the My Health Savings USA™ pricing transparency program provides actual negotiated discount prices available to employees from their specific PPO rates. This leads to "real transparency", not illusory price data that is often too generalized to be of much use.

8 key indicators demonstrate how this unique and innovative program produces more value than any other consumer health shopper program:

1. The program uses confidential network specific provider pricing data -- not generic billed charge data from public files.

2. Employees receive concierge-level personalized service by experienced, trained Care Navigators and Nurse Advisors --  not a self-service web portal.

3. Employers are provided an integrated informational page for their benefits website, plus training videos, paycheck stuffers, posters, and benefits communication materials.

4. My Health Savings USA™ launch teams come to worksites and train employees how to use the service

5. My Health Savings USA™ integrates with other MHI Benefits Group programs such as disease management, predictive modeling and domestic or international health travel and worksite wellness programs to provide a more comprehensive approach to reducing healthcare costs without network disruption or replacement.

6. Employers with self-funded benefit programs can include as many procedures as they like for one monthly per employee fee that starts as low as $1.50 per employee per month.

7. Employers can have their TPA send us a previous year's claims batch file and their SPD, and we can prepare a comprehensive and predictive ROI estimate for this program, based on previous claims utilization data.  A simple spreadsheet file that does not contain any PHI is all that is required to perform the savings analysis.

8. Employers can choose whether the shared saving rewards are paid as cash or additional contributions to employee HSAs or HRAs.

So far, pilot accounts have been experiencing 3-15x returns on program costs and employee engagement is at an all time high.  The reward bonuses cause buzz around the water cooler, in the break room, and they look for repeat opportunities to save money on every health care encounter.

Please Visit http://myhealthsavingsusa.com/compare-the-value.html for additional details or to learn more about MHI Benefits Group.