(The Center Square) — A state agency that tracks health care costs and provides public data on hospital performance is lowering prices for journalists who want to access information.
The Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council added a press pricing tier for its data fees, mirroring what it charges researchers.
“Because their aim is to reach a broader public, to share health care information, we had a series of internal meetings … to have that sold at the research rate,” PHC4 Deputy Executive Director Heather Nairn said.
The success of the press-tier pricing, however, won’t be measured in revenue.
“I do not anticipate, percentage-wise, a significant increase in overall revenue at all,” Nairn said.
Instead, the hope is for the council to have a broader reach with the press and more public awareness.
“One of the things that I was specifically charged with, coming into the organization, is to broaden awareness to the citizens of the commonwealth more broadly — not just legislators, not just universities and health care researchers — but to broaden awareness to citizens about the information that we have and which parts of that information can be helpful to them when making a health care decision,” Nairn said.
Nairn wants the public to use the council’s data and reports for comparing hospital performance or “where to have surgeries,” she said. “We need more people to know that this is out there … people are overwhelmed with what to do next.”
The independent state agency has about two dozen workers and is partially funded by the state, with data sales comprising its total budget.
The yet-to-be-finalized Pennsylvania budget held the council’s funding steady at $3.2 million, though the council requested a $400,000, as The Center Square previously reported. That increase would have helped fill a $953,000 budget deficit reported at the council’s July 6 meeting.
PH4C Executive Director Barry Buckingham called the press tier “an untapped market” at the meeting and said a “better scale of payments” could improve data sales.
