Addition of Blue Cross and Blue Shield companies' data will expand nation's leading resource for understanding health care cost trends. 

CHICAGO (November 12, 2019) – The Health Care Cost Institute (HCCI) and Blue Health Intelligence^® (BHI^®) announced today a multi-year data partnership, significantly expanding HCCI's data resources and bolstering its ability to provide research insights to aid employers, government officials and the public in finding solutions to address health care costs. 

BHI data represents medical claims from participating Blue Cross and Blue Shield company members, stripped of any identifying information about individuals and employers. Its inclusion adds significantly to HCCI's existing data arrangements with other payers. 

With this new and expanded database, HCCI will continue to shed light on trends driving health care spending growth in the U.S., and spark possible solutions. HCCI's dataset is one of the few independent sources of information on people who get health insurance through their employers—the largest single source of health coverage for Americans.

"HCCI is a critical national resource," said Niall Brennan, HCCI president and CEO. "This new partnership with BHI, allied with ongoing support from our legacy partners, guarantees the continued availability of an accessible, trusted resource to better understand and ultimately rein in U.S. health care costs. We are excited to embark on this new partnership with BHI and commend them for their leadership and commitment to transparency."

With this new partnership, HCCI will continue to be the leading data resource for the employer-sponsored and individual insurance markets. HCCI utilizes data from multiple commercial payers, de-identified to protect patient, payer, and clinical provider privacy. Both HCCI's team of in-house researchers and researchers at leading universities and other blue-ribbon health care analytic organizations then produce cutting-edge, robust, and relevant analysis.

"We are thrilled to expand the Blue Cross and Blue Shield System's longstanding commitment to bring greater transparency to health care by offering HCCI access to the deep insights that BHI's data provides," said Bob Kolodgy, executive vice president and chief financial officer of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association and a BHI board member.

"By adding our conformed and secure data to HCCI's existing repository by the end of this year, BHI welcomes the chance to increase opportunities to advance health care cost and quality solutions for all Americans," said Swati Abbott, CEO of BHI.

"HCCI data has become an indispensable source of insight for the nation's leading academic institutions, such as Harvard, Cornell, and Yale, as well as blue-ribbon health care analytic organizations, including the Congressional Budget Office, the Federal Trade Commission and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Office of the Actuary," said Robert J. Town, PhD, chair of HCCI's Governing Board. "The continued availability and expansion of this data source will allow us to continue to better understand health system performance."

About the Health Care Cost Institute
The Health Care Cost Institute's mission is to get to the heart of the key issues impacting the U.S. health care system — by using the best data to get the best answers. HCCI stands for truth and consensus around the most important trends in health care, particularly those economic issues that are critical to a sustainable, high-performing health system. Launched in 2011, HCCI currently holds one of the largest databases for the commercially insured population, and in 2014 became the first national Qualified Entity (QE) entitled to hold Medicare data. For more information, visit healthcostinstitute.org or follow us on Twitter @healthcostinst.

About Blue Health Intelligence^®
Leveraging the power of medical and pharmacy claims data from more than 190+ million Americans, Blue Health Intelligence (BHI) delivers insights that empower healthcare organizations to improve patient care, reduce costs, and optimize performance. With the largest, most up-to-date, and uniform data set in healthcare, BHI provides an accurate representation of the health profile of commercially insured Americans. Our team of data analysts, clinicians, IT experts, and epidemiologists provide analytics, software as a service, and in-depth consulting to payors, providers, employers, medical device companies, and other healthcare stakeholders. Blue Health Intelligence is an independent licensee of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association and carries the trade name of Health Intelligence Company, LLC. For more information, visit http://www.bluehealthintelligence.com/.

About Blue Cross Blue Shield Association
The Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association is a national federation of 36 independent, community-based and locally operated Blue Cross and Blue Shield companies that collectively provide health care coverage for one in three Americans. BCBSA provides health care insights through The Health of America Report series and the national BCBS Health Index. For more information on BCBSA and its member companies, please visit bcbs.com. We also encourage you to connect with us on Facebook, check out our videos on YouTube, follow us on Twitter and check out our blog.

Contact:

Sally Rodriguez

Health Care Cost Institute

571.257.3838

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Janet Hughes

Blue Health Intelligence

Office: 312.540.5192 / Cell: 312.953.5094

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Tess Thomson

Blue Cross Blue Shield Association

202.942.1082

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