STATEHOUSE (Oct. 11, 2024) – State Reps. Wendy McNamara (R-Evansville) and Tim O’Brien (R-Evansville) encourage Hoosiers to take advantage of a new state website to compare health care prices and quality.
In 2020, state lawmakers passed a law establishing the newly launched Indiana All Payer Claims Database, which is overseen by the Indiana Department of Insurance, to help increase transparency in health care costs. The website collects insurance claims data from public and private health care payers to track the cost, utilization and quality of health care across the state.
“This dashboard allows Hoosiers to get answers on quality and pricing for common medical procedures across the state,” McNamara said. “Constituents can now make more informed decisions on their health care.”
McNamara said the APCD lets Hoosiers search what other patients have paid for common procedures across regions, providers and insurance plans. Additionally, the database includes a list of health care providers that perform services within certain distances from a zip code, the average out-of-pocket costs for a service and the quality rating for that facility. For example, Hoosiers needing a knee replacement can select their insurance, procedure and zip code on the database to view a list of nearby health care providers that perform the service, the quality rating for that facility and the average out-of-pocket cost.
“Not only does this website provide helpful information for consumers, but it will also be useful for researchers and policy makers,” O’Brien said. “They can use this data to study ways to make health care better and more affordable across the state.”
According to O’Brien, the goals of the database are to inform Hoosiers seeking medical care, identify state health care needs, support health care policy, and improve the quality and affordability of health care in the state.
Information collected by the APCD complies with the security standards outlined in the U.S. Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act also known as HIPAA and the U.S. Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act. Onpoint Health Data, the Indiana APCD administrator, is also certified by HITRUST, an industry-leading standard in health data security that uses both federal and state security requirements.
