Patent ID: 8682690

Claim:
A computer system for estimating medical treatment costs, comprising: a computer database configured to store medical service cost data from a plurality of geographic regions and at least one health plan provider in an electronic database, wherein the stored medical service cost data comprises: a plurality of episode class codes, wherein each episode class code is associated with an episode of care that includes all medical services associated with a particular disease, condition, procedure, or test; and an average amount billed by health care providers for each episode class code under one or more health plans provided by the at least one health plan provider, wherein the average amount billed for each episode class code comprises the summed average amount billed for all medical services in the associated episode of care; the computer database further configured to store a geographic adjustment factor for each of the plurality of geographic regions in the electronic database, wherein the geographic adjustment factor for each region is calculated based upon relative utilization of a plurality of selected common medical services in each of the plurality of geographic regions; and a computer processor programmed to: receive an electronic query input by a user via a computerized input device, wherein the query includes a geographical region and a selection by the user of a disease, medical condition, procedure, or test; identify the stored episode class code associated with the selected disease, medical condition, procedure or test; retrieve from the computer database the stored average medical service cost data and the average amount billed for the identified episode class code; adjust the retrieved average amount billed for the identified episode class code using the stored geographic adjustment factor corresponding to the geographic region input by the user to generate an adjusted average amount billed for the selected disease, medical condition, procedure or test; and estimate a user medical treatment cost for the selected disease, medical condition, procedure or test using the adjusted average amount billed.