I ask you to join me in supporting a bill to create a Pennsylvania All-Payer Claims Database (APCD), aimed at improving transparency about healthcare costs and quality for everyone.
An APCD will collect data from all types of health insurance plans both private and public and cover medical, dental, pharmacy, behavioral health, and emergency care claims. While a special Advisory Board led by the Insurance Department, including various community representatives, will protect everyone's privacy and ensure the APCD is managed responsibly. The APCD will improve our understanding of healthcare costs by:
- Showing clear prices: Providing easy-to-understand information about how much healthcare services cost, allowing us to compare prices and quality among hospitals, doctors that are covered by your insurance.
- Helping consumers: Empowering individuals and families to choose the best care based on cost, quality, and an estimate of how much they need to pay from their own pockets.
- Regulatory efficiency: Helping the Pennsylvania Insurance Department make sure health insurance rates are fair, ensure there are enough providers in health networks, and support fair negotiations between insurance companies and healthcare providers.
Roughly 25 states already have a version of an APCD and have realized the benefits. For example, Minnesota’s Department of Health in 2015 used its APCD to identify over 1.3 million hospital and emergency department visits that may have been preventable, which represented over $1.9 billion or 4.8% of total health care spending for that year.
The creation of an APCD in Pennsylvania will provide a critical tool for consumers and the legislature as we consider the ongoing crisis of increasing healthcare costs. Please join me in supporting this important bill to make healthcare clearer, fairer, and more affordable for all Pennsylvanians.