Healthcare Insurance Research

Cost Transparency

More and more consumers are finding themselves in health plans that provide incentives for them to become more conscious of the cost of care and knowledgeable about their healthcare choices. Many find it difficult to navigate this new environment with their lack of understanding of how the system works, complicated provider pricing systems, and a lack of understandable and available cost information.

To address this trend, insurers, providers, state and federal agencies, and others are looking for ways to provide cost information that consumers can use to better guide their decisions and achieve better control over the rising costs of healthcare.

This emerging trend raises many questions that need to be addressed to develop solutions that work:

What impact will access to cost information have on changing consumer behavior? Will it cause them to shop for care?
How will that behavior change? Will consumers go to facilities and providers that may be new and unfamiliar?
How will consumers use the information? What other questions or concerns will having information raise for them?
How do we educate consumers about the healthcare system, its cost structure, and how it works?
How do we make better cost information available? Where will consumers look for information?
What communications tools will be most effective? How should they be structured?
How can we use the Internet to provide information? How should a website be designed?
What impact will cost transparency have on provider competition?
How do we change the "entitlement" mindset of consumers to a new paradigm?

To get answers to these and other questions, contact us for a proposal.