This CHCF-funded study, featured in the journal Health Affairs, finds that efforts to increase price transparency for health care services often downplay the complexity of decisions about care, patients' dependence on physicians for guidance, and the need for information on quality.

The research indicates that simply giving consumers a price list of "a la carte" services does little to help them make informed choices about which providers will cost less for an episode of care, let alone which providers offer the best value — the optimal combination of the lowest cost and highest quality.

The author points out that insured patients have different needs for price information than those without coverage. Accordingly, policymakers should be careful not to overlook the role of health plans in negotiating better prices and translating complex price and quality data into usable information that can steer patients to lower-cost, higher-quality providers.

The complete article is available free of charge on the Health Affairs site listed under External Links.