{"id":13130,"date":"2026-05-07T05:10:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T05:10:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/?p=13130"},"modified":"2026-05-07T05:10:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T05:10:13","slug":"why-dont-patients-price-shop-for-healthcare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/?p=13130","title":{"rendered":"Why don\u2019t patients price shop for healthcare?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Stuart Figueroa provides some insights in his <a href=\"https:\/\/theincidentaleconomist.com\/wordpress\/i-tried-price-shopping-for-health-care-it-isnt-worth-it-not-yet\/\">Incidental Economist article<\/a>:<\/p>\n<p>To start, price shopping is inconvenient. It requires the consumer to invest time and energy in finding a provider, oftentimes having to navigate provider directories that are <a href=\"https:\/\/www.propublica.org\/article\/ghost-networks-health-insurance-regulators\">inaccurate, incomplete, or outdated.<\/a>\u00a0Price shopping is also hampered by the mere fact that health insurance is complicated and consumers\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.researchgate.net\/publication\/323562917_Consumer_Responses_to_Price_Transparency_Alone_Versus_Price_Transparency_Combined_with_Reference_Pricing\">have difficulty<\/a>\u00a0understanding\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.kff.org\/affordable-care-act\/kff-survey-of-consumer-experiences-with-health-insurance\/\">what is covered<\/a>\u00a0and how much it will cost. Even with\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cms.gov\/priorities\/healthplan-price-transparency\/overview\/use-pricing-information-published-under-transparency-coverage-final-rule\">mandated price transparency<\/a>, if consumers are unable to understand pricing information,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/journalofethics.ama-assn.org\/article\/if-patients-dont-use-available-health-service-pricing-information-transparency-still-important\/2022-11\">how useful is it?<\/a><br \/>When taken together, consumers face an uphill battle if they want to shop around for their care. Yet, they will weather all of these challenges and more if\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/insight.kellogg.northwestern.edu\/article\/will-people-price-shop-for-healthcare\">the price is right<\/a>\u00a0and incentives align with their needs and desires. <\/p>\n<p>The article has some information on Mr. Figueroa\u2019s own personal attempts at price shopping for healthcare. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Stuart Figueroa provides some insights in his Incidental Economist article: To start, price shopping is inconvenient. It requires the consumer to invest time and energy in finding a provider, oftentimes having to navigate provider directories that are inaccurate, incomplete, or outdated.\u00a0Price shopping is also hampered by the mere fact that health insurance is complicated and&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13130"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13130"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13130\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}