Thousands of carriers. Millions of plan documents. The same benefit, described a thousand ways, none of them machine-readable.
Scroll, and watch them become one.
$50 copay/visit; deductible does not apply.
Out-of-network: 50% coinsurance after you meet your deductible.
You pay $60 per office visit. Not subject to deductible.
Non-participating providers: plan pays 60% after deductible; you pay the rest.
$40 copayment for each covered visit.
A referral from your PCP is required. Out-of-network is not covered.
{ "benefit_id": "SPECIALIST_VISIT", "canonical_key": "specialist", "category": "PHYSICIAN_SERVICES", "network_cost_shares": [ { "tier_id": "IN", "cost_shares": [ { "type": "copay", "amount": 50 }, // Aetna { "type": "copay", "amount": 60 }, // Cigna { "type": "copay", "amount": 40 } ] }, // Humana { "tier_id": "OUT": deductible → coinsurance, in sequence } ], "conditions": [ { "type": "referral" } ] // fine print, as data}
Software can read the words off any page. What it cannot do is know that these three phrases are the same benefit. BPS settles that with controlled vocabularies: canonical benefits, categories, plan types, markets. Seven carriers stop being seven dialects and become one comparable dataset.
Mom has spent $1,500 this year. Is her coverage active?
Every BPS document is checked against the published schema, the standard’s rulebook. The validator confirms the required fields are present, the structure is right, and every term comes from the shared vocabularies. Pass or fail, in seconds, by anyone, for free. No certification body, no committee, no waiting for approval.
$ npx ajv validate -s benefit-plan.schema.json -d my-plan.jsonloading schema v1.1.0 …checking required: plan_id, plan_name, carrier, network_tiers, benefits …checking vocabularies: canonical_key, category, plan_type … ✔ my-plan.json is a valid Benefit Plan Standard document
BPS does not care how you get the data. It defines what shape it lands in. The schema, seven worked carrier examples, controlled vocabularies and a pharmacy module are public today.
The Benefit Plan Standard · An open, vendor-neutral standard for health benefit plan data.
Governance is public. Versioning is semantic. Contributions are welcome.