Dive Brief:
- Research suggests that Americans generally believe that more-expensive healthcare is probably better care.
- To alleviate their fears, providers need to show the cost of care alongside of their quality rankings to reassure consumers that cheaper prices don't mean worse care.
- To address these concerns, the transparency movement in healthcare is likely to grow into a $3B a year industry dedicated to influencing how Americans make health choices.
Dive Insight:
It stands to reason, under most circumstances, that you get what you pay for -- so it's hardly surprising that consumers should feel that way as well. If providers want to demonstrate that they've got both lower prices and high quality, they'll have to make it easy for consumers to digest the information, ideally within a five-second scan of the data. Researchers also note that insurance companies and employers will need to encourage employers to actually use price and quality tools when selecting providers.