Insured Consumers With Access To Procedure Costs Picked Lower Cost Facilities

Insured consumers who used a procedure costs comparison tool offered by their health plan tended to pick lower cost health care facilities. About 3.5% of consumers with access to the insurer tool actually used it to compare costs for common elective procedures and imaging. Searching for price information also was associated with a lower adjusted total spending of $131 for imaging and $103 for sleep studies.

These findings were reported in “Association Between Viewing Health Care Price Information and Choice of Health Care Facility” by Anna D. Sinaiko, Ph.D., M.P.P., and colleagues. The researchers examined consumer . . .