I am embarrassingly late to the party with Clear Health Costs (launched at the end of 2010), but for everyone else who also wasn’t aware, I want to highlight this very useful resource. Founder and CEO Jeanne Pinder was featured by CBS News in late September of 2019 with a clear overview of how the website and its database can help consumers determine current pricing in their area for different procedures.
Clear Health Costs has partnered with local news media (earning some Edward R. Murrow awards along the way) to get broadly and deeply sourced feedback on what medical providers are charging in different areas of the United States. Armed with this information, patients can either anticipate potential unnecessary charges (the dreaded “out of network” costs) or negotiate better rates when paying out of pocket for their care.
Clear Health Costs is easy to use and set up for optimal transparency regarding data sources and age. Here’s hoping that they roll out further price surveys in more areas of the United States in future.
