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Price shopping: Customers don't always know the whole story

Patient Financial Services Weekly Advisor, July 13, 2007

Healthcare consumers everywhere are jumping online to search for the best prices, but experts warn consumers not to be fooled by what appears to be the best deal, reports the Chicago Tribune.

Hospital and insurer Web sites target consumers with high-deductible health plans-those patients particularly concerned with their out-of-pocket expenses.

Clarian Health Partners, an Indianapolis-bases system, debuted a pricing Web site this spring that combines cost and quality for about 75 common procedures. Visitors receive an estimate, depending on whether they're covered by Medicaid, Medicare or private insurance.

But the estimates are incomplete. For example, a customer who researches the price of a blood type test may not know how many tests he or she needs. Further, Clarian's Web site doesn't include the price of the needle it uses.

The customer likely doesn't know to consider these types of additional costs.

"The overall goal is to empower people with information about pricing, to make everybody better consumers of health care," Jon Mills, a spokesman for Clarian Health Partners, told the Tribune.

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