Consumer-driven healthcare enrollment is rising steadily. Evidence shows that transparency in cost and quality can trim healthcare bills and cultivate a more informed and healthy consumer. To support this consumer-driven environment, employers are demanding Web technologies to facilitate employees' plan and provider comparisons and decision-making. Additionally, healthcare organizations such as the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) now require certain Web-based tools before conferring accreditation.

In "Transparency e-Tools: Healthcare IT That Meets Employer, Consumer and Accreditation Demands," contributing authors describe the challenges of developing Web technologies that support decision-making and promote good health, building effective performance metrics, structuring incentive programs, and getting people to use them. Although there are still many hurdles to overcome, the transparency vision includes an informed, involved and connected healthcare consumer who effectively navigates the Web for decision support, comparison-shopping and healthcare spending management.

In this 55-page special report, HIN's accomplished panel of contributing authors furnish details on the following:

• The challenges of providing cost and quality information;
• The Web's evolving role in consumer-driven healthcare;
• Plan comparison and cost calculator e-tools;
• Length, detail and utilization of online health risk assessments (HRAs) and incentives for HRA completion;
• Building buy-in for consumer-driven healthcare initiatives;
• and much more.

Throughout this special report, these respected thought leaders offer strategies and lessons learned in the transparency arena, including eight pages of Q&A:

• Kim Bellard, vice president, eMarketing & CRM, Highmark Inc.
• Louis H. Diamond, M.B., Ch.B., vice president and medical director of Medstat
• John Mills, director of product development, HIP Health Plan

This report is based on two recent HIN audio conferences on the emergence of transparency in healthcare and its increasing dependency on the Web to educate and support consumers in healthcare-related decisions.

Table of Contents

• Experiences and Challenges of Transparency in Healthcare
  • Is There a Quality Problem?
  • Responses to Cost and Quality Problems
  • The National Quality Forum (NQF)
  • Results of Transparency Initiatives
  • Results of the BTE Program
  • Transparency Challenges
• HIP Health Plan Charts Interest in Consumer-Driven Healthcare
  • e-Based Strategies for Decision Support Tools
  • Plan Comparison and Cost Calculator Tools
  • CostCompare™ Tool Allows Utilization Estimation
  • Assessing Account Information
  • HRAs Used to Improve Members’ Health
  • Provider Cost and Quality Information
  • Return on Investment Difficult to Determine
• The Web’s Growing Role in CDHC
  • The Challenges
  • Consumers Are Becoming More Aware of Transparency Information
  • A Variety of Efforts Needed to Change Behavior
  • Managing Health Spending
  • Consumers Want Information But Don’t Always Use It
  • We Have a Long Way to Go
• Q&A: Ask the Experts
  • Convincing Hospitals to Provide Public Access to Information
  • Tradeoffs to Transparency
  • Early Buy-in Decreases Resistance to Public Reporting
  • Pre-Firewall Versus Post-Firewall Information
  • New Tools For Open Enrollment
  • Cost Calculator Tools
  • HIP’s HRA Length and Utilization
  • Highmark’s Internet-based HRA
  • Providing Incentives for HRA Completion
  • Driving Members to Web-based Tools
  • Successful Communication Strategies
  • Training Sales Force on Web-based Tools
  • HRA Tool Provides Summary to Doctors
  • The Future of Handheld Devices in Healthcare
  • Incenting Providers to Encourage Patient Use of the Web
  • Innovative Technology Information Dissemination
• Glossary
• For More Information
• About the Authors