Culture Change is Here: People are Price-Shopping for their Health Care

Culture change is here.
People are upset about rising health care prices and rising out-of-pocket expenses.
In fact, they’re so upset that they’re acting like consumers, by shopping around for their health care, and by sharing information, and by complaining about their outrage. And that’s a good thing.
When I founded clearhealthcosts.com a few years ago, I announced: “We’re bringing transparency to the health care marketplace by telling people what stuff costs.”
People laughed at us. They said it was impossible. We heard every objection you can imagine. And now: price transparency is a primary topic at conferences, in board rooms, on Twitter and Facebook, on the front page of The New York Times.
Make no mistake about it: Culture change is here. Here are some of the reasons we know that to be true.
People told us that no one would ever shop for health care because it’s too important: if it’s your life at stake, or the life of a loved one, money is no object.
Listen for a bit, then, to my friend Peggy Zuckerman, a cancer survivor, as she wrote in a blog post about learning that a  CT scan she needed for a checkup could cost $276 or $8,010, or my friend e-Patient Dave DeBronkart, also a cancer survivor, as he wrote on his blog about issuing an RFP for treatment of his skin cancer.
People told us that once the Affordable Care Act came into effect, everyone would be insured, and that meant that everything would cost $20 – or whatever your co-insurance or co-pay...

Source: Disruptive Women in Health Care - June 11, 2014 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: dw at disruptivewomen.net Tags: Access Advocacy Choice Consumer Health Care Patients Source Type: blogs