WellPoint to collaborate with health insurance providers for online tool

INDIANAPOLIS Health insurer WellPoint will collaborate with two other health insurance providers to provide access to its online cost comparison tool for more than 48 million Americans.

The Indianapolis-based insurer said the collaboration would allow Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida and Health Care Service Corp. – which operates Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans in four other states – to provide the total estimated cost ranges associated with 35 specific medical procedures performed at more than 2,800 hospitals, outpatient surgery centers, free-standing radiology facilities and other facilities.

“We developed this transparency tool in 2006 for use by members in our health plans, with the goal of creating well-informed consumers of health care,” WellPoint president and CEO Angela Braly said in a statement. “We are pleased to be working with other Blue companies so that even more members can have access to clear, concise health cost information in major cities across the country.”