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Webinar: Driving Healthcare Transparency with Actionable Resources

Why is healthcare transparency important, and what resources can states use to promote it? Join members of our Population Health team and our partners from HonestHealth for a December 7 webinar. They'll be discussing their review of 230 transparency tools (conducted for New York State) and summarizing key findings and best practices.

Our Latest Newsletter

What've we been up to this summer? Check out our latest newsletter to find out! 

Exploring health care transparency tools for New York State |  Improving supports for people with self-injurious behavior  | Analyzing Multnomah County's behavioral health system | Breaking down barriers to college success | And more!

HSRI-Developed Tool Rates Highly in Consumer Reports Investigation

This fall, Consumer Reports released the results of an investigation into the quality and usability of cost-estimator tools from New York health insurance companies and related resources. As part of the study, CR also examined eight standalone websites that deliver healthcare cost and quality information to consumers, including CompareMaine, a state-specific tool developed by HSRI’s population health team. Using a combination of consumer user testing and objective scoring criteria, CR rated the standalone websites on ease of use, functionality, content, and scope and reliability. CompareMaine ranked second with 65 points, just one point behind a website that provides national data! (Scores among the eight sites ranged from 22 to 66 points.)

CompareMaine ranked higher than the other tools in Ease of Use—a particularly important category given that consumer testers rated user-friendliness as the most important factor for these tools. CompareMaine also received CR’s highest rating for Scope and Reliability.

Notably, consumers also expressed a preference for cost and quality information to be presented together rather than on different parts of a website—and CompareMaine is one of the few sites that meets this preference.

CR’s recommendations for New York, as outlined in an associated Issue Brief, included the recommendation that the state should “explore ways to provide direct consumer access to provider-level price/value information (for both insured and uninsured patients) through a single comprehensive price transparency website, using data from the All-Payer Database (APD) and other sources, similar to what New Hampshire and Maine do.”

“We are excited to have CompareMaine included in the Consumer Reports review,” said Leanne Candura, director of HSRI’s population health team. “Consumers played a big role in its development, and we worked hard—with them and with our client, the Maine Health Data Organization, and our project partners—to create an easy-to-use tool. We’ve been presenting at national conferences on best practices for conveying cost and quality information to consumers, and we’re working with several states in this regard, helping transform their health datasets into effective decision-support tools.”

HSRI led the development of CompareMaine as part of a contract with the Maine Health Data Organization, in partnership with NORC at the University of Chicago and web designer Wowza. Grant funds from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services made the website possible. 

HSRI Unveils New Senior Leadership Team

The Human Services Research Institute announced today the new senior leadership team that has been selected to lead HSRI’s strategic direction. The new team balances continuity and forward-thinking, promoting the next generation of HSRI leaders from within the organization and providing a platform for continuing HSRI’s mission of assisting health and human services agencies to improve the quality and availability of programs and services that help people live independent, healthy, fulfilling lives.

“The opportunity that HSRI has to guide clients through exciting advances in health and human services—including integrated health, system outcome tools, self-direction, advanced resource allocation models, and improved health data analytics—is incredible. We have four decades of experience helping agencies and service systems make data-driven decisions regarding the best ways to deliver services and supports. And with the leadership team I’m announcing today, I’m confident that HSRI is on the path for another 40 years of innovation and influence,” said David Hughes, who was named incoming HSRI president in October 2015 and officially stepped into the role on January 1, 2017.

The six leaders who will sit on HSRI’s new senior leadership team are:

HSRI Presentation from the National Association of Health Data Organizations Conference - October 2016

Members of our Health Data team attended last week's National Association of Health Data Organizations (NAHDO) conference in Minneapolis, and Research Associate Leanne Candura presented findings from the team's comprehensive review of consumer-facing healthcare transparency websites for the Vermont legislature last year.