Association member health plans serve more than 240,000 state and local government workers, their families and others enrolled in the state employee health plan.
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March 9  |  Association Staff

Governor Jim Doyle’s signing of 2009 Assembly Bill 614 today is an important step in empowering consumers to make more informed health care purchasing decisions.  The legislation gives Wisconsin consumers greater access to health care cost information and complements the continuing work of health plans to make health care costs more transparent.

“We applaud Governor Doyle for signing AB 614 and thank Sen. Jim Sullivan (D-Wauwatosa) and Rep. Jon Richards (D-Milwaukee) for shepherding this important bill through the legislative process,” said Nancy Wenzel, CEO of the Wisconsin Association of Health Plans.  “The legislation parallels the efforts of health plans, many of which have gone several steps beyond the requirements in the legislation in order to further empower consumer decision making.”

AB 614 requires providers to disclose information on billed charges, Medicare reimbursement and allowable payments from insurers and self-funded plans.  The legislation requires health plans to provide to consumers, upon request, the information that is most relevant and useful for insured consumers:  estimates of expected out-of-pocket costs for services to be received.  

Members of the Wisconsin Association of Health Plans have been providing out-of-pocket cost estimates since 2008, when the Association’s Transparency Initiative was implemented.  Since then, insured consumers have had the ability to obtain information giving them a better position from which to evaluate their health care options. 

“With health care services taking more money out of consumers’ pockets, health plans gave their insured members another tool for managing their health care budgets,” Wenzel said.  “As access to health care cost information increases, we expect consumer demand for the information will grow.   Health plans are working to meet the growing demand by developing new tools and assessing the best approaches for helping consumers evaluate and obtain health care services.”