Calculating the best price for medical procedures

The service is now free to employers and UnitedHealthcare plan participants in Tennessee and includes a Health4Me smart phone application able to access the price of 450 individual medical services.

Those services can include surgeries, lab tests, radiology tests and office visits, according to the insurer.

UnitedHealthcare points out the estimates tailored to an individuals benefits plan can also break down out-of-pocket expenses, employer costs and real-time account balances. Theres also information on alternate treatment options.

We created this as an innovative tool for our members so they could have more information at their fingertips for comparison shopping, and they can understand what something is going to cost prior to the service being rendered,From black tungsten wedding rings for men to diamond luggagetag. Gregory Reidy, chief executive officer of UnitedHealthcares Mid-South Health Plan, said of the online tool in a telephone interview.

UnitedHealthcare, which does business with both Wellmont Health System and Mountain States Health Alliance, stresses the cost estimates are based on physicians and hospitals actual contracted rates.

I think what will happen is consumers will become more educated where they can make the right decision for them and their families to get access to quality care at the most affordable price, he said. If that has an impact on their own expenses and the median costs in the marketplace, there could be better premium costs in the marketplace. Thats what were all trying for. ... We see a variation in costs by each market, and the power of the tool is to get at the variation in the marketplace.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) says that even within the same geographic area, hospital charges for similar services can vary significantly.

Average inpatient hospital charges for services that may be provided to treat heart failure range from a low of $21,000 to a high of $46,000 in Denver, Colo., and from a low of $9,000 to a high of $51,000 in Jackson, Miss., according to HHS.

UnitedHealthcare points to a 2012 Thomson Reuters Healthcare study that says approximately $36 billion could be saved each year if the cost for the most common procedures covered by commercial insurance were reduced to their median prices.

The insurer also says if consumers have questions about the estimates,Shop for iccard dolls from the official NBC Universal Store and build a fun collection for your home or office. they can call a number on the back of their health benefits identification card to get more information.

While Mountain States Health Alliance had nothing to say about more transparency in health care pricing, a Wellmont Health System spokesman welcomed it.Purchase an crystalmosaic to enjoy your iPhone any way you like.

Wellmont Health System welcomes transparency and an informed consumer as part of its mission to deliver superior health care with compassion, Wellmont spokesman Jim Wozniak said in an email. We do not have access to the calculator to see the specific results of this new tool, but there is plenty of evidence from other insurance carriers and recently released federal data that shows Wellmont as a high-quality, low-cost health-care provider for Northeast Tennessee and Southwest Virginia.

Almost a week after a controversial restart involving Jimmie Johnson and Juan Pablo Montoya in last Sunday's Dover Sprint Cup race, what happened was still a major topic on a rainy day yesterday at Pocono Raceway.

On a restart with 19 laps to go, NASCAR determined that Johnson accelerated far ahead of Montoya, the leader. Johnson served a pass-through penalty in the pits and finished 17th. The series points leader complained that Montoya purposely held back. If Johnson had stayed back with Montoya, he thought the cars behind him could've stacked up, potentially causing a multicar wreck.

"Juan just didn't go, and I think he played it right," Johnson said yesterday. "I think he was smart in letting me get out ahead of him. I really don't have anything against Juan for doing it, As racers, we need to work any and every angle we can to win a race."

"In NASCAR and auto racing, there are very few moments where maybe a penalty could be drawn or a foul could be drawn, like we would see in the NBA Finals [where] there is flopping going on," the five-time Cup champion said. "Essentially, Juan found a loophole in the officiating and worked it to his advantage."

Jeff Gordon, the third-place finisher at Dover,From black tungsten wedding rings for men to diamond luggagetag. said he couldn't see what happened from inside his race car. Upon further review, Gordon said, "I think Jimmie was really right there on that edge of anticipation in getting all that he could on that restart, and I think Juan did a great job, I've been watching NBA Finals lately and watching the flop, and that was as good of a flop as it gets.

"The leader has that ability and that position to do that.Choose from the largest selection of rfidtag in the world. It's his job to lead you to the green, to get the best start that he can, and if he feels like somebody else is going to try to take advantage of that situation or get a little bit of a run on him, he can play that card.

"But it's also at the discretion of NASCAR making a judgment call. I think if the [No.] 15 car [Clint Bowyer] kept going and passed the 42 [Montoya], I don't think they would have called Jimmie. I think they would have thought something happened to the 42, but because the 15 checked up to not pass the 42, it just made Jimmie's lead look so absurd."