Shopping for health care is often too complicated and, even when it works, most people don’t. The theory behind high health insurance deductibles is that the more an individual has to spend on health care, the more careful they will be – thereby purging wasteful procedures from the system. But high deductibles aren’t working as they should, and research shows that people cut back on care when they have more to spend for it. They also cut necessary care, rather than just the wasteful kind. Patients don’t know what care they need so they consult doctors and medical expects, which runs counter to the rising trend of encouraging people to make their own judgments about what care is worth the price. Not all care is related to an emergency; some is elective and therefore “shoppable.” Researchers estimated that between 30 and 40 percent of care, such as routine check-ups, falls into this category. But very few shop for this type of care, and even when price transparency tools are offered to make it easier, almost no-one uses them. A National Bureau of Economic Research working paper focused on one particular “shoppable” service, non-emergency, outpatient, lower-limb MRI scans. The study showed that patients typically get their MRIs wherever their physician recommended, with little regard to cost. In addition, less than 1 percent used a price comparison tool to shop for MRIs before getting one. As such, the study’s authors concluded that doctors send patients to more expensive locations than required. Zack Cooper, a health economist at Yale and co-author of the research, added that doctors don’t have all the information to make the best decisions for their patient either. There are more than 15 MRI locations within 30-minutes’ drive for most patients, and the average price of a hospital MRI is more than double that of one at an imaging center. But researchers found that physicians who work at hospitals are more likely to send a patient for costlier hospital-based imaging, despite the fact that the quality of low- and high-priced MRIs doesn’t differ enough to be clinically meaningful. This article in the cost effective way to don't only because there is much money on the same amount to pay for the costs more. Instead, what is more likely to work is influencing what doctors advise.
Shopping for health care is often too complicated and, even when it works, most people don’t. The theory behind high health insurance deductibles is that the more an individual has to spend on health care, the more careful they will be – thereby purging wasteful procedures from the system. But high deductibles aren’t working as they should, and research shows that people cut back on care when they have more to spend for it. They also cut necessary care, rather than just the wasteful kind. Patients don’t know what care they need so they consult doctors and medical expects, which runs counter to the rising trend of encouraging people to make their own judgments about what care is worth the price. Not all care is related to an emergency; some is elective and therefore “shoppable.” Researchers estimated that between 30 and 40 percent of care, such as routine check-ups, falls into this category. But very few shop for this type of care, and even when price transparency tools are offered to make it easier, almost no-one uses them. A National Bureau of Economic Research working paper focused on one particular “shoppable” service, non-emergency, outpatient, lower-limb MRI scans. The study showed that patients typically get their MRIs wherever their physician recommended, with little regard to cost. In addition, less than 1 percent used a price comparison tool to shop for MRIs before getting one. As such, the study’s authors concluded that doctors send patients to more expensive locations than required. Zack Cooper, a health economist at Yale and co-author of the research, added that doctors don’t have all the information to make the best decisions for their patient either. There are more than 15 MRI locations within 30-minutes’ drive for most patients, and the average price of a hospital MRI is more than double that of one at an imaging center. But researchers found that physicians who work at hospitals are more likely to send a patient for costlier hospital-based imaging, despite the fact that the quality of low- and high-priced MRIs doesn’t differ enough to be clinically meaningful. And if people can’t shop for elective MRIs, they are unlikely to do so with other more complicated health care procedures, the study suggests. Instead, what is more likely to work is influencing what doctors advise.