Price Transparency Tools Are Still Struggling. We Offer Advice

By PETER, BELL & FINDLAY The potential of price transparency tools to help consumers with high out-of-pocket medical expenses remains largely untapped, according to two recent studies published in Health Affairs and other recent research by Consumer Reports and Public Agenda. One study found that while more than half of the nearly 3,000 patients surveyed said they would use a website to shop for healthcare if they knew of one, only 13 percent actually looked for information on future healthcare spending and only 3 percent compared prices and costs across providers. In the second study, patients with access to a price transparency tool focused on “shoppable” services did not experience overall lower spending on those services, and only 12 percent used the tool to begin with. On a positive note, patients who compared prices for imaging tests decreased spending an average 14 percent. Research by us at Consumer Reports and a survey by Public Agenda (publicagenda.org) signals additional cautious hope for consumer’s use of price transparency tools in the future.   Both projects were sponsored by the New York State Health Foundation (myshealthfoundation.org) and received additional funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (rwjf.org). What Public Agenda found Public Agenda surveyed 2,062 adults nationwide and, in addition, 802 people in New York, 808 in Texas, 819 in Florida, and 826 in New Hampshire. In contrast to the Health Affairs findings, Public Agenda found...
Source: The Health Care Blog - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized Consumer Reports price transparency Steve Findlay Source Type: blogs