PBN Health Care Summit: Price transparency a challenging objective for industry

Elizabeth Graham and Andy Smith

10/30/2019

PROVIDENCE BUSINESS NEWS EDITOR Mike Mello, left, leads the discussion at PBN's Health Care Summit on Wednesday. Participating on the panel are, from left, Marc Backon, president, commercial division, at Tufts Health Plan; Stephen Farrell, CEO of UnitedHealthcare of New England; Marie L. Ganim, R.I. Health Insurance Commissioner, Kim A. Keck, CEO and president of Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island; Dr. Alan Kurose, CEO and president of Coastal Medical; and Neil D. Steinberg, CEO and president of Rhode Island Foundation. / PBN PHOTO/MIKE SKORSKI — PROVIDENCE BUSINESS NEWS EDITOR Michael Mello, left, leads the discussion at PBN's Health Care Summit on Wednesday. Participating on the panel are, from left, Marc Backon, president, commercial division, at Tufts Health Plan; Stephen Farrell, CEO of UnitedHealthcare of New England; Marie L. Ganim, R.I. Health Insurance Commissioner, Kim A. Keck, CEO and president of Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island; Dr. Alan Kurose, CEO and president of Coastal Medical; and Neil D. Steinberg, CEO and president of Rhode Island Foundation. / PBN PHOTO/MIKE SKORSKI

PROVIDENCE – Health care needs more price transparency, but how to address the issue remains a challenge, panelists at the Providence Business News 2019 Fall Health Care Summit said Wednesday. While most insurers already have the tools to share cost information, and pass them along to members and providers, price distributions typically aren’t widely used,…