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| Rhonda M. Medows, MD, Commissioner | Sonny Perdue, Governor | |
GeorgiaHealthInfo.Gov Makes Finding and Comparing Health Care as Easy as 1, 2, 3
| Friday, December 19, 2008 |
Contact: Lisa Marie Shekell - (404) 657-9118
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ATLANTA – With just a few clicks Georgians are empowered to make educated decisions about their health care through a new Web site launched by the Georgia Department of Community Health (DCH). GeorgiaHealthInfo.gov was launched today to provide health care quality, cost and health education information.
“With increasing patient interest in their own health, rising out of pocket health care costs, and an increasing number of people without health insurance, it is important that health consumers have information to compare their options when planning for their nonemergency health care needs,” said Dr. Rhonda Medows, DCH Commissioner. “The information provided on georgiahealthinfo.gov makes health care quality and cost information more transparent, increases patient engagement and encourages Georgians to play an active role in their health care decisions.”
Funded through the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services’ Medicaid Transformation Grant, georgiahealthinfo.gov is being launched in two phases. The first phase will allow users to access health, wellness, prevention and disease content from MayoClinic.com. The site also features cost and quality comparison data for hospitals, cost data for common outpatient procedures, cost comparisons of prescription drugs, and quality rankings for health insurance plans. Users are also able to obtain the location and driving directions to hospitals, pharmacies and outpatient centers from their homes using a mapping function. The second phase of the Web site will include expanded provider profile information and the addition of a decision support tool for long-term care. This phase is set to be completed by the summer of 2009.
DCH engaged health care stakeholders and consumers across the state throughout the development of the Web site to ensure accuracy and relevancy for Georgia citizens.
In addition, DCH collaborated with a number of health care partners to collect the data available on the Web site. Phase I Data Partners include:
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Georgia Hospital Association
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Georgia Association of Health Plans – including seven major commercial health plan providers: Aetna, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Georgia, Cigna, Coventry, Humana, United Healthcare and Kaiser
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DCH’s Office of Care Management Organizations, Wellcare, PeachState Health Plan and Amerigroup
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MayoClinic.com
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Georgia Department of Human Resources, Office of Regulatory Services
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DCH Office of Health Planning
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DCH Office of Managed Care and Quality
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State Health Benefit Plan
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Thomson Reuters through DCH Decision Support Systems Office
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Health Information Security and Privacy Collaborative (HISPC)
GeorgiaHealthInfo.gov is a major component of Governor Sonny Perdue’s statewide strategy to enable the availability and transparency of health information.
To view and use the new Web site visit http://georgiahealthinfo.gov
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