Price transparency led patients to choose lower-cost hospitals

When given access to transparency tools estimating prices for imaging services and sleep studies, commercially-insured patients were more likely to choose lower-cost hospitals.

The study, published in JAMA Internal Medicine, linked enrollment and medical claims data from 2010 to 2012 to search results from patients aged 19 to 64 years old for the following procedures: carpal tunnel release, cataract removal, colonoscopy, echocardiogram, mammogram, several MR and CT imaging services, sleep studies or upper endoscopy.

To isolate the effect off seeing the price estimates, researchers compared whether patients who viewed estimates for their specific procedure were more likely to choose lower-priced facilities than those searching for other procedure or who had the procedure performed in the year before the pricing tool was widely available.

According to their results, the ability to look up prices had an impact. For both the imaging services and sleep studies, patients who viewed price estimates chose facilities with lower estimates than other patients. They also saved money, with searching for prices being associated with lower adjusted spending of $131.40 for imaging and $103.50 for sleep studies.

“This study focused on one carrier, and data include the first two years that the tool was available; future research is needed to determine whether these patterns hold if and when these tools are used more broadly,” wrote Anna D. Sinaiko, PhD, MPP, of Harvard University’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health and her coauthors. “We also cannot observe whether patients used the tool not to comparison shop but to become educated on costs in advance of receiving medical care.”

Sinaiko and her coauthors concluded by saying barriers to using the tool may remain due to few patients taking advantage of it and “modest effects for other services.”