Survey Maps Consumer Health Price Ignorance

Ordinary U.S. residents have a hard time imagining how much prices for medical services vary in this country.

Researchers at HealthMarkets Inc., North Richland Hills, Texas, have published figures supporting that conclusion in a summary of results from a November telephone survey of 1,028 U.S. residents ages 18 and older living in private households in the United States.

HealthMarkets recently acquired the old HealthMarket Inc., a Connecticut startup that helped introduce the idea that health insurers should inform plan members what care from specific doctors actually costs.

Despite all of the attention now being paid to “health care price transparency,” only 23% of the survey participants said they believed they knew a “great deal” or “some amount” about how the prices their doctors charge compare to what other doctors charge for the same procedure, HealthMarkets researchers report.