Price Transparency Tool Decreases Spending on Select Services

New data show that providing patients with a tool that allows them to view price estimates for procedures prior to undergoing them can result in reduced spending.

For patients with commercial insurance, little is known about the impact of price information on patient choices.

To fill this gap, Sinaiko and colleagues examined the impact of a real-time, personalized episode-level price transparency tool offered online by Aetna to 94% of their commercial enrollees. The tool allows patients to choose a health care facility for select services base on pricing.

The study included 3.4% of patients (n = 181,563) who used the tool between 2010 through 2012 for 8 services, including carpal tunnel release, cataract removal, colonoscopy, echocardiogram, mammogram, several magnetic resonance imaging and computed tomographic imaging services, sleep studies, or upper endoscopy. Patients were between the ages of 19 to 64 years and enrolled in the insurance plan for at least 7 months of the year. 

To assess the impact of the tool, the investigators looked at whether patients who viewed price estimates for their specific procedure were more likely to choose health facilities that offered lower-priced procedures than patients who used the tool to view other procedures prior to the tool being widely available.

The study found that patients looking for prices on two services chose health care facilities with lower prices. Patients who viewed price estimates for imaging services prior to their procedure chose health care facilities with lower relative price, as did patients who viewed price estimates for sleep studies.

The study also found that searching for price information was significantly linked to lower total spending for imaging of $131.40, and lower total spending of $103.50 for sleep studies. 

The modest effects of the tool on other services suggest that barriers to using the tool remain, stated the investigators, who also emphasized the need for future research to assess whether the patterns seen in this study will also be seen with a broader use of the tool. —Mary Beth Nierengarten