Offering A Price Transparency Tool Did Not Reduce Overall Spending Among California Public Employees And Retirees [Consumerism & Competition]

We examined the experience of a large insured population that was offered a price transparency tool, focusing on a set of "shoppable" services (lab tests, office visits, and advanced imaging services). Overall, offering the tool was not associated with lower shoppable services spending. Only 12 percent of employees who were offered the tool used it in the first fifteen months after it was introduced, and use of the tool was not associated with lower prices for lab tests or office visits. The average price paid for imaging services preceded by a price search was 14 percent lower than that paid for imaging services not preceded by a price search. However, only 1 percent of those who received advanced imaging conducted a price search. Simply offering a price transparency tool is not sufficient to meaningfully decrease health care prices or spending.

Source: Health Affairs - August 7, 2017 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Desai, S., Hatfield, L. A., Hicks, A. L., Sinaiko, A. D., Chernew, M. E., Cowling, D., Gautam, S., Wu, S.-j., Mehrotra, A. Tags: Health Spending, Consumer Issues, State/Local Issues - California Consumerism & amp; Competition Source Type: research