In a blog post [1] on shopping for healthcare, Jeanne Pinder, founder and CEO of ClearHealthCosts, noted that people are increasingly realizing that they need to seek out price and quality information. She cites findings from a Public Agenda study [2], funded under the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Understanding the Use and Impact of Price Data in Health Care solicitation, that found [3] over half of Americans have tried to find information about health care prices before receiving care. The study also found that most Americans are aware that high costs do not necessarily mean better quality. Pinder recommends equipping Americans with price and quality transparency tools, such as publicly available data, to help people become better shoppers.
Links:
[1] http://thehealthcareblog.com/blog/2015/11/19/yes-people-shop-for-health-care-but-are-they-good-at-it/
[2] http://www.hcfo.org/grants/price-data-solicitation-public-perspectives-price-data-patterns-use-perceived-abilities-and-b
[3] http://publicagenda.org/pages/how-much-will-it-cost
[4] http://www.hcfo.org/topics/consumer-behavior
[5] http://www.hcfo.org/topics/costs-and-cost-containment
[6] http://www.hcfo.org/topics/price-data-and-transparency
[7] http://www.hcfo.org/topics/quality-care