Health care price transparency websites have been created to facilitate price shopping and reduce spending but to date these have been plagued by low use. Research published in Health Affairs sought to establish whether this low use reflects a lack of interest or a lack of awareness. Researchers launched a large online advertising campaign to increase consumers’ awareness about insurer-specific negotiated price information available on New Hampshire’s public price transparency website. Their campaign led to a more than 600 percent increase in visits to the website. However, in their analysis of health plan claims, this increased use of the website did not translate to increased use of lower-price providers. Their findings imply that the limited success to date of price transparency tools in reducing health care spending is driven by structural factors that limit consumers’ ability to use health care price information as opposed to only a lack of awareness about price transparency tools.
Read more:
- Online Advertising Increased New Hampshire Residents’ Use Of Provider Price Tool But Not Use Of Lower-Price Providers. Health Affairs. March 2021
- NH Health Cost: https://nhhealthcost.nh.gov/