Aug 19, 2021
In this episode, host Stacey Richter speaks with Sunita Desai, PhD, a health economist and assistant professor at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, about the real-world impact of price transparency in healthcare. They break down the intended progression from transparency to consumerism to lower costs and higher quality care—and why, in practice, that progression often stalls. Sunita shares key research on the barriers consumers face when trying to act on price information, and they discuss what it will take to make consumerism an effective force in healthcare.
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🔗 Show Notes
with all mentioned links:
https://relentlesshealthvalue.com/episode/ep334
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06:23 Why is everyone so interested in price transparency right
now?
07:30 How does price transparency enable consumerism?
08:05 What are the two aspects to consumerism in order to enable it
in health care?
11:01 Does access to price transparency tools lower costs and
spending?
15:19 Why is there such low utilization of price transparency
tools?
16:13 What’s the first barrier to using price transparency
tools?
17:10 Why bypassing the physician at the point of care limits the
use of price transparency tools.
17:53 EP284 with Carm
Huntress.
23:20 EP308 with Mark Fendrick,
MD.
23:31 How does reducing spending with
high-deductible health plans negatively affect high-value health
care?
25:23 “There is not a strong correlation between prices of
providers and quality.”
28:48 How does a reduction in physician choices undermine price
transparency?
29:30 “We owe that information to patients … it’s useful for
patients to know what out-of-pocket costs they should expect.”