NEW YORK, Sept. 6, 2016 /PRNewswire-HISPANIC PR WIRE/ — FAIR Health, a leading national independent nonprofit organization that advances system-wide healthcare cost transparency through consumer resources, data products and health services research support, announced today that it has launched a free mobile app to help improve health insurance literacy, promote transparency in medical and dental costs and increase healthcare engagement among Connecticut residents.

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Funded by a grant from the Connecticut Health Foundation (CT Health), the FH® Cost Lookup CT mobile app becomes available at a time when changes to the Connecticut health system increasingly require consumers to make complex decisions based on costs associated with their medical and dental care. Those changes include the expansion of coverage through Access Health CT, the state’s health insurance exchange; the proliferation of health plans with increased member cost-sharing requirements and narrow networks; and the overall drive toward value in healthcare.

Available in both English and Spanish, the app includes a feature that enables both insured and uninsured consumers to estimate the regionally specific costs of medical and dental procedures received in Connecticut, as well as in neighboring states (New York, Massachusetts and Rhode Island). The app also provides educational articles that explain the fundamentals of health coverage, as well as healthcare issues specific to Connecticut. In addition, the app directs users to community resources for healthcare, transportation assistance and other services. These educational materials will be especially helpful for those at lower levels of health insurance literacy, including the newly insured or uninsured. Hispanic consumers will benefit, as well, by accessing these tools and resources in Spanish. The app can be downloaded from the iTunes App Store or from Google Play.

In addition to FH Cost Lookup CT’s development, the grant-funded program entails efforts to disseminate the app and promote its use through collaborations with community-based organizations, community health centers and health exchange navigators. The program will also develop targeted partnerships with organizations that serve Hispanic communities.

FAIR Health President Robin Gelburd stated, “Research continues to show that most consumers lack the necessary understanding of health insurance required to make informed healthcare decisions—whether selecting a plan or managing healthcare and related costs. FAIR Health is proud to offer a free tool that will help advance health insurance literacy and empower Connecticut residents to better navigate the healthcare system.”

“The Foundation is proud to support the launch of FAIR Health’s mobile app,” said Tiffany Donelson, Vice President of Program at CT Health.  “Having access to basic health information and pricing data is absolutely critical to advancing health equity in Connecticut. Now more than ever, it is essential to equip consumers with cost and other educational health resources so that they can make better healthcare decisions.  Having the information in the app available in both English and Spanish is an important step in maximizing the impact of health coverage expansion under the Affordable Care Act.”    

“Physicians in Connecticut are increasingly serving on the frontlines of cost-related conversations with their patients. With access to FAIR Health’s free app, physicians and patients can have meaningful discussions regarding the costs of tests and treatments, thereby leading to shared and informed decision making. Eliminating the confusion around costs is indeed a win-win for physicians, patients and patients’ families,” said Matthew Katz, Executive Vice President and Chief Executive Officer of the Connecticut Medical Society. 

The new app is driven by healthcare prices from FAIR Health’s database of over 21 billion claims for privately billed medical and dental procedures dating back to 2002. FAIR Health receives data from payors that collectively insure more than 150 million individuals in the private healthcare system. FAIR Health’s consumer app, available in English (FH Cost Lookup) and Spanish (FH CCSalud); English-language website (www.fairhealthconsumer.org); and Spanish-language website (www.consumidor.fairhealth.org) also offer cost estimation services utilizing this robust database.

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About FAIR Health

FAIR Health is a national, independent, nonprofit organization dedicated to bringing transparency to healthcare costs and health insurance information through data products, consumer resources and health systems research support. FAIR Health uses its database of billions of privately billed medical and dental claims to power an award-winning free consumer website and to create data products serving all healthcare stakeholders, including government officials, researchers, providers, insurers and other businesses and consumers. FAIR Health has been certified by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) as a Qualified Entity, eligible to receive all Medicare claims data for use in nationwide transparency efforts. In addition, FAIR Health’s data have been designated as the official data source for a variety of state health Programs, including Workers’ Compensation and Personal Injury Protection (PIP) programs as well as state consumer protection laws governing surprise out-of-network bills and emergency services. For more information, visit www.fairhealth.org.

About Robin Gelburd

FAIR Health President Robin Gelburd, JD, is a recipient of a 2016 Dig|Benefits Technology Innovator Award, bestowed by Employee Benefit News, and has been invited to speak to organizations across the country, including keynote presentations, on topics of critical importance to employers, employees, health plans, third party administrators, consultants and other stakeholders in the healthcare “ecosystem.” Her presentations have taken place at forums sponsored by the American Medical Association, American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA), the Alliance for Health Reform, the Institute for HealthCare Consumerism and the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans, among others. She also has published numerous articles on topics such as data analytics in The Self-Insurer, healthcare cost transparency and clarity in Managed Healthcare Executive, the New York State consumer protection law in Employee Benefit Adviser and consumer preferences on the Institute for HealthCare Consumerism website (www.theihcc.com).

Prior to her role at FAIR Health, Ms. Gelburd served for eight years as general counsel of a medical research foundation comprising approximately 30 premier academic medical centers, hospitals and research institutions in New York State. During her tenure at this consortium, Ms. Gelburd also was appointed chairperson of New Yorkers for the Advancement of Medical Research, a statewide coalition of over 40 organizations that she helped found in 2003 and whose mission was the promotion of state funding and support for stem cell research and regenerative medicine. Previously, Ms. Gelburd was a health law partner at the New York City law firm Kalkines, Arky, Zall & Bernstein (now Manatt, Phelps & Phillips). During her 10 years at that firm, she represented an array of healthcare-based clients—including hospitals, provider groups and organizations, payors, skilled nursing facilities, special needs plans and ambulatory care centers—on a variety of strategic, regulatory, policy, governance, business and contractual matters. Earlier, Ms. Gelburd worked as a litigation and corporate associate at the international law firm Morrison & Foerster. She began her legal career as a federal appellate law clerk to the Honorable Francis D. Murnaghan, Jr. from the Court of Appeals, 4th Circuit.

About the Connecticut Health Foundation

The Connecticut Health Foundation (CT Health) is the state’s largest independent health philanthropy dedicated to improving lives by changing health systems. Since it was established in 1999, the foundation has supported innovative grantmaking, public policy research, technical assistance and convening to achieve its mission—to improve the health of the people of Connecticut. Over the past 17 years, CT Health has awarded grants totaling close to $59 million in 45 cities and towns throughout the state.

In 2013, CT Health announced a five-year strategic plan that made expanding health equity the foundation’s central focus. For CT Health, health equity means helping more people gain access to better care, especially people of color and underserved populations. Better care includes physical, mental and oral health.

For more information about the Foundation, please visit www.cthealth.org. 

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WHITE PLAINS, New York, Sept. 6, 2016 /PRNewswire-HISPANIC PR WIRE/ — Fewer than 1 in 4 Americans are very confident in the federal government being able to respond to a Zika virus outbreak in the United States or abroad, according to a new study from the March of Dimes and NORC at the University of Chicago. Following the failure of an emergency funding bill to pass in Congress, the survey finds growing concern among Americans about the Zika virus and strong support for federal funding into Zika research.

“This new survey shows clearly that Americans believe that Congress needs to step up and do more to combat Zika,” said Dr. Jennifer L. Howse, president of the March of Dimes. “At the same time, many Americans, particularly those in their childbearing years, still lack basic information about how Zika can be spread and how to protect themselves. A coordinated, national effort is necessary to educate individuals and families about their risk, and to fund aggressive efforts to prevent, diagnose and treat Zika as quickly as possible.”

Public knowledge of Zika has changed little since NORC last measured awareness in March, and Americans continue to have a mixed understanding of the virus. More than 9 in 10 Americans correctly state that a person can be infected if bitten by a mosquito carrying the virus and 8 in 10 are aware that Zika is linked to birth defects in babies born to infected mothers. Fewer know Zika can be spread through sex (58 percent) and younger Americans ages 18 – 40 still have key gaps in awareness, including a lack of knowledge around recommendations to delay pregnancy if potentially exposed to the virus.

“While most Americans have a general understanding of the Zika virus, too many people are not yet knowledgeable about the nuanced issues with the virus,” said Caitlin Oppenheimer, senior vice president for public health research at NORC at the University of Chicago. “Our survey shows that people are getting Zika information from a variety of sources, but only some of which they trust. This information gap reinforces the need for a strong public health infrastructure with the ability to disseminate critical information to the public in a timely way.”

The full report is available at: http://www.norc.org/PDFs/MarchOfDimes/Report_March_of_Dimes_NORC_Zika_Poll_090616.pdf

The topline with complete question wordings is available at: http://www.norc.org/PDFs/MarchOfDimes/Topline_March_of_Dimes_NORC_Zika_Poll_090616.pdf

Key findings from the poll include:

• Sixty-one percent of Americans are moderately worried that the country will see a large number of Zika infections in the next year, up from 52 percent in March.
• Three-quarters of Americans support increased federal funding into research to prevent the spread of Zika, and majorities support mosquito control policies.
• Seventy-seven percent of adults recognize the need to delay pregnancy when a woman lives in a Zika-affected area, but awareness is lower for the age group most at risk, 18-40 year olds (68 percent).
• Most Americans (85 percent) have received information about Zika from television or radio news, but few (39 percent) trust that source.
• Americans are most trusting of Zika information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, their personal doctor, and their state or local public health departments, but few have received information from these sources.
• Thirteen percent of adults age 18-40 say they have abstained from sex to prevent pregnancy in light of Zika, while 24 percent report they have used condoms or other forms of birth control to prevent sexual transmission.

Survey Methodology
The nationally representative survey was funded by the March of Dimes and conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago, using the AmeriSpeak Panel®, which is NORC’s probability-based panel and is designed to be representative of the U.S. household population. Panel members were randomly drawn from the AmeriSpeak Panel, and 2,379 completed the survey. The survey included oversamples of men and women age 18-40 for a total of 646 interviews with men age 18-40 and 1,108 interviews with women age 18-40. Respondents without internet access and those who prefer to complete surveys by phone were interviewed by trained NORC interviewers. The overall margin of sampling error is +/ 3.2 percentage points at the 95 percent confidence level, including the design effect. The margin of sampling error is higher for subgroups.

About the March of Dimes
The March of Dimes is the leading nonprofit organization for pregnancy and baby health. For more than 75 years, moms and babies have benefited from March of Dimes research, education, vaccines, and breakthroughs. For the latest resources and health information, visit our websites marchofdimes.org and nacersano.org. If you have been affected by prematurity or birth defects, visit our shareyourstory.org community to find comfort and support. For detailed national, state and local perinatal statistics, visit persistats.org. You can also find us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.

About NORC at the University of Chicago
NORC at the University of Chicago is an independent research institution that delivers reliable data and rigorous analysis to guide critical programmatic, business, and policy decisions. Since 1941, NORC has conducted groundbreaking studies, created and applied innovative methods and tools, and advanced principles of scientific integrity and collaboration. Today, government, corporate, and nonprofit clients around the world partner with NORC to transform increasingly complex information into useful knowledge. www.norc.org

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