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Healthcare prices in the U.S. are often hidden. Some people think this price opacity contributes to our nation’s high healthcare spending. If people don’t know how expensive healthcare is, they won’t have much reason to restrain healthcare utilization.
A recent study tested what would happen if physicians were immediately informed of the price of lab tests that they were planning to order for their patients. The study took place in three Philadelphia hospitals. The researchers randomized whether or not the electronic health record gave physicians price data on specific lab tests. For some lab tests, the computer never gave doctors price information; for other tests, they always got price information (after a baseline, so the researchers could establish how often doctors normally ordered the tests).
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