Recent Tips have noted consumers do have access to information about the cost of their care, from multiple sources not so hard to find. (Where’s ‘Waldo?’)

Less clear is whether or not transparency will yield the competitive pressures expected to lower cost and, if quality data (‘Wanda”) is equally - or more - important.

Beyond Medicare’s Provider Comparison website, here are some ways consumers are learning about the quality of care they receive.

Although the quality and ‘efficiency’ algorithms may be guarded, some insurers are ranking individual physicians. Check out your Provider Directory (mostly on line these days). If you seek care from a highly rated doc (e.g., two hearts), you’ll be rewarded with reduced or no co-pays.  

(Interestingly, within the same Health System, there may be highly rated and unrated doctors.)

Then there are (mostly) self-funded employers who waive deductibles and co-insurance for employees who get care at carefully vetted ‘Centers of Excellence.’

(Kudos to my friend John Torinus and Serigraph for being in the vanguard of this movement.)

More about ‘Wanda’ (health care quality) down the road a bit.

“Slava Ukraini!”