Released: May 09, 2006

Health care prices hard to find

Source: By Julie Appleby, USA Today

From the president of the United States to the president of the biggest employer in town, it seems as if everyone is urging Americans to become better “shoppers” for health care. Get a high-deductible insurance plan. Open a health savings account. Call around and find the best deal on medical treatments, then pocket the savings. Sounds great: But just try it.

Even as some employers, insurers and politicians tout consumerism in health care as the newest and best way to control rapidly rising medical inflation, it’s still exceedingly difficult to be a medical care consumer.

Most hospitals and doctors can’t or won’t quote a price for care. Quality information — such as mortality and complication rates — is available for some hospitals and some procedures, but information on individual doctors is rare.

Even when prices are quoted, the data given might be nearly useless if they reflect “charges,” which few people pay, rather than actual negotiated rates.

“If you walk into a [doctor’s office] and ask, ‘What does it cost?’ they can’t tell you. [The medical industry] ... is trying to keep this information secret,” says Dianne Kiehl, executive director of the Business Health Care Group of Southeast Wisconsin, a coalition of employers.

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