We get by with a little help from our shopping tools

Regence is committed to being at the forefront of the transparency conversation in health care and providing people with quality care at an affordable price. Recently, we worked in tandem with HealthSparq, our price transparency tool provider who dug through a massive amount of data to see how shopping tools could impact Regence customers. This infographic offers a snapshot into the spending habits or our 1.1 million members and the savings that could be recognized with a little help from shopping tools.

The study revealed how simple changes like using telehealth or shopping for a provider could provide massive savings.

People are interested in learning more and last week State of Reform highlighted some of our key findings and I also had the opportunity to speak with AHIP for a quick Q&A to talk about why transparency is so important.  

Some of the key findings based on Washington data include;

1. Consumers can save big by using tools already available to them – this equals $254.6 million in savings for Washingtonians.
2. $1.9 billion per year is spent on health care and 28 percent of this amount is “shoppable” and could be eliminated by choosing lower cost procedures.
   1. This alone could save $94 per person per month.
3. Small changes can equate to big savings for consumers.
   • People can save $41 per month on their health care just by shopping for a lower cost provider.
   • Telehealth users can save $49 per person rather than seeing their doctor in a traditional office visit.

Our industry will continue to change in the coming years and we believe it’s imperative for Regence to take the lead on delivering tools that will enable consumers become more educated on cost and quality options available to them.