While health care spending growth has slowed in recent years, it is still poised to consume a fifth of the US economy by 2025. As such, the pressure to constrain costs and improve value persists — with continued focus on patients and physicians as primary agents to reduce health expenditures.
And while both patients and physicians may have a role to play in price transparency efforts, their interests are not necessarily the same. Many experts contend that without accurate and reliable information on health care prices, patients do not have the incentives or tools needed to shop for the best value in their health care. For physicians, there is a lack of consensus around whether their role as health care providers includes financial stewardship.
In 2013 the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), in collaboration with AcademyHealth, funded six research studies to contribute to understanding the use and impact of price data in health care. The goal was to generate reliable and generalizable evidence to inform policymakers and other stakeholders and accelerate the pace of efforts to use price information effectively.
The grantees recently presented findings from their studies at an invitational meeting of policymakers, researchers, and other experts actively engaged in developing and using health care price information. The meeting discussion explored the “state of the art” in price transparency and sought to identify directions for future research.
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