DMHC Consolidates Plan Data into \'Dashboard\'

The Department of Managed Health Care has launched a new consumer-oriented “dashboard” that aggregates much of the data the agency compiles on health plans into a single access point.         

            The agency has combined numerous data points on each health plan, including enrollment, consumer complaints, independent medical reviews, enforcement actions, finances, financial reports, and surveys undertaken by the agency. It is readily available on the DMHC's home page.

            Each data point is fairly detailed: Enrollment, for example, is not just for a single year, but going back to 2000, allowing users to understand trends. And the enrollment is also broken out in terms of commercial, government and other forms of enrollees.

            The dashboard makes it easier to discover how many administrative penalties and their dollar amount taken against a plan in a specific calendar year – something that previously required scrolling through pages of data and adding them up manually.

            In another area of information buried on the DMHC website, the dashboard puts upfront the number of consumer complaints filed against the plan, and the specific issues behind the complaints. Consumers can examine them on an annual basis going back to 2000. Independent medical reviews undertaken by the DMHC is also aggregated going back to 2000, including the number of reviews that led to initial health plan decisions being upheld, overturned or reversed.

            “The DMHC is excited to launch the Health Plan Dashboard, increasing transparency and access to health plan data,” said DMHC Director Shelley Rouillard. “This online tool will make it easier for the public to find information on health plans in California, and will also help the department make better use of our data internally.”

            According to DMHC spokesperson Rodger Butler, it took two years to create the dashboard and its various features.

            “We wanted to increase transparency and public access to data. Consumers did not specifically ask for the dashboard, but the DMHC does receive frequent requests for data. The dashboard helps us respond to these requests,” Butler said.

            Anthony Wright, executive director of the Sacramento-based consumer advocacy group Health Access, said he had reviewed the dashboard and declared it “pretty nifty” in a telephone interview.

            Wright said that the information that is readily available may not only be able to empower consumers, but other constituents as well.

            “This does provide a whole set of information to healthcare purchasers, policymakers, press and others an ability to put more accountability on the health plans,” he said.

            As an example, Wright cited pending mergers between Anthem and Cigna and Aetna and Humana that could have had an adverse effect on premiums. Both deals have been held up pending legal challenges by the U.S. Department of Justice.

            “Trying to do a deep dive of some of these health insurers took us a lot of time and effort, because a lot of their operational and financial elements were in different places” said Wright, who is also a member of the Payers & Providers editorial board. “So twhen we do have an insurer that is a particularly bad actor, this will help make it much more obvious, allowing them to be appropriately called out.

            Butler noted that some of the features of the dashboard will also make it easier for the agency itself to keep tabs on the health plans.

            “The dashboard aggregates more than a dozen data sets. That data is now consolidated and searchable, making it easier to access and use,” he said. “The dashboard also automatically generates charts and graphs and this no longer needs to be done manually.”