The providers behind the contracts
Cost Plus Wellness publishes the contract, but not a way to check the provider. Each analysis here answers one question about the providers it publishes contracts with, from federal data and the published contracts, with the method open.
The quality record behind the contracts
The federal integrity and quality record for the published providers: every clinician screened against the exclusion lists, license status, CMS quality, and industry payments. Posting 10 to start; every one cleared the screen, and 5 are contracts Mark Cuban's own companies use.
The listing standard
A network is only as strong as the bar to get into it. The federal-record standard for listing a provider: no active exclusion, no license discipline, quality reported to CMS. All ten published providers we screened clear it.
What a Wellness contract pays, in dollars
All 77 published contracts, turned into dollars. A knee replacement costs $17,679 to $29,000 across five surgery centers. A Dallas knee MRI costs $285.25 under one contract and at least $607 under another.
Same network, same procedure, two prices
One Wellness contract prices 31 surgery and endoscopy centers from its hospital rate table, a median 5.0 times the Medicare surgery-center rate. A colonoscopy costs $2,264 there and $886 at the network's surgery-center terms.
What insurers pay Dallas hospitals, beside what Wellness pays
Baylor's own federal price file lists Cost Plus Wellness as a payer, at the contract's rates. For a knee MRI, Wellness pays $607 and all 11 of Baylor's commercial plans pay more. Across eight adult hospitals, insurers pay a median $1,452 for the same scan.
Does the hospital post what the Wellness contract says?
26 of the 30 Baylor Scott & White hospital files list Cost Plus Wellness. They post 6,457 of 6,646 outpatient codes at the contract rate, apply the table's inpatient method on newer Medicare weights, and post drugs by a rule tied to Medicare's drug payment limit.
Same doctor, same visit, different price
Four insurers post their prices for the same Texas doctors. For the same doctor and the same office visit, the highest posted rate is a median 1.45 times the lowest. Inside BCBSTX, the same doctors have a median posted rate of 77% of Medicare in one network and 95% in another.
Tell us the provider, or the question
If there is a provider you want checked, or a question about the Wellness side you want answered, write and say so.