Findings from RWJF-Funded Studies Featured in Blog on Price Transparency

In a piece for the Association of Health Care Journalists blog [1], Joanne Kenen of Politico discusses the landscape of health care price transparency. She features a recent Health Affairs blog [2] post co-authored by AcademyHealth’s Megan Collado and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s (RWJF) Andrea Ducas that details the discussion from an expert meeting on the current state of price transparency and findings from six RWJF-funded studies [3] on the use of price data in health care. Among other findings, the researchers found that patient demand for price information is rising, but relatively few people have used available price tools; there’s mixed data on whether clinicians change their test ordering behavior when given price information at the point of care; and some doctors are uncomfortable talking about costs of care with patients. This suggests the need for more research into how provider and consumer behavior change as prices become more transparent.