Consumer's guide to doctors and hospitals published in Wisconsin - Health Pages

Health Care Financing Review, Spring, 1993

A new ally to help consumers make informed decisions about their health care choices is now available to Wisconsin residents in the form of Health Pages, a 68-page magazine containing information that has never been published before--the backgrounds, services, and prices of local doctors, hospitals, laboratories, and other health care providers. The goal of the magazine: to empower individuals to act more like consumers of health care instead of simply as patients of the health care system.

Nothing like Health Pages exists. It is the only source of information available to the public that allows consumers to compare local services and prices. Through this consumer guide, for the first time, people will be able to learn about their local health care options before they become patients--to shop around and compare options as they would for any other product. "I hope Health Pages will aid enterprising consumers in their search for the best health care at the most affordable cost," said Wisconsin Assembly Speaker, Walter Kunicki, who also is a registered nurse.

Why a Wisconsin edition of Health Pages? Two reasons: First, Wisconsin's laws mandate the collection and public availability of hospital and physician information. Second, the progressive consumer-oriented focus of local health care providers resulted in a very high response rate from hospitals (18 of 20 responded to survey requests) and physicians (64 percent of obstetricians, for example, responded). This assured the breadth and accuracy of the data.

This issue contains information for the entire family, including articles on pregnancy, prostate and breast cancer, medigap insurance, home nursing, and weight loss. All the articles provide reader-friendly information about treatment options and services, as well as specific information about doctors, hospitals, laboratories, and other health care providers in Green Bay, Madison, and Milwaukee.

For example, a special 20-page report on pregnancy is accompanied by a guide to local obstetricians complete with the number of deliveries each doctor performed in the last 2 years, prices charged for maternity services, special clinical interests, and--published for the first time in this country--individual physician cesarean rates. The guide to hospitals lists everything from the types of rooms available to hospital cesarean and vaginal birth after cesarean rates--which show Wisconsin to have the second lowest cesarean rate in the country.

The section on breast cancer includes a comparative chart on mammography facilities that indicates among other things whether a facility is accredited by the American College of Radiology, while a chart in the prostate section shows that the charge for a prostate specific antigen test to screen for prostate cancer can range from $36 to $135--a 275-percent difference.

This publication is timely in that empowering patients to become educated health care consumers is an important element in any health care system reform scenario. It is the only magazine in the country that is actually doing what the American Medical Association has recommended--publishing doctors' fees on a comparative basis. The magazine is meant to be kept in the home and used as a guide.

Health Pages plans to publish in an additional three to five States within a year. Its premiere issue was in Florida.

Health Pages will initially be published in Wisconsin on a semiannual basis, eventually expanding into a quarterly. It is available on newsstands for $3.95. Discounted rate bulk copies are available to employers, unions, insurance companies, and consumer groups. The Wisconsin edition is partially funded by National Small Business United and the Mutual of Omaha Companies.

For more information, contact Martin Schneider at (212) 929-6131.