BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina

OK, But How Much Will It Cost?

February 22, 2011

Quick — do you know how much a knee replacement costs at your local hospital? Unless you’re reading this while recuperating from knee surgery, you probably don’t.

Now you can find that information online through the National Treatment Cost Estimator, launched online this month by the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association. The tool uses an aggregate of 12 months of claims data from Blue plans nationwide to identify the cost range of a medical service and matches it with the member’s health plan requirements for copayments, deductibles and coinsurance to estimate the member’s share. The member can see comparisons between area hospitals and assess the estimated portion of his or her bill. The tool will also take into account what the member has already paid toward the deductible.

The tool includes costs of 59 of the most common elective procedures for inpatient, outpatient, and diagnostic services at specified area hospitals, ambulatory surgery centers, and freestanding radiology centers for inpatient, outpatient, and diagnostic services. We will add new categories over time.

This is the first tool to include Blue cost data to a member’s personalized benefits. It can be found in My Health Toolkit^® at Member.SouthCarolinaBlues.com.

View a printer-friendly version of this bulletin.