Why healthcare price transparency initiatives are failing?

Why healthcare price transparency initiatives are failing?(quora.com)

8 points by kikouyou 10 years ago | 5 comments

You are right about consumers being the key. My first 3 startup attempts were enterprise health... thought I knew insides of the system enough to be able to sell them on new tech/solutions that can change care for better.

Wrong. I found people willing to say they will adopt new tech, but fundamentally there was no incentive to actually take the steps.

To be fair, consumers are also not 100% motivated to be more accountable for their health. Delayed gratification may be a reason. But still, they will change faster than the establishment. And that may force the health establishment eventually.

Even well-researched, clinical trial based evidence from established research teams takes >decade to get entrenched into medical practice. Check this out: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1395794/

Sigh.

coldtea 10 years ago |

Because non-transparency is a multi hundrend billion dollar industry -- with the financial, media, and political power that comes from that?

kikouyou 10 years ago | |

Unfortunately you are right, but this does not help us consumers to spend less on medical. If we do not grab this issue at heart, prices will continue to move up together with deductibles and consumer with insurance will not get care when needed. It is not good for the society. we are the only force to try to change that by publishing all the prices in our app. Please support us https://goo.gl/PvPypQ

pallavsharda 10 years ago |

In one word, the reason is incentives. I felt compelled to write details down on quora..

kikouyou 10 years ago | |

Very true Pallav and incentives are coming in the for of carrot (save money when you shop) and stick (High deductibles). I think we agree that before the consumer gets involved, nothing will happen to improve the system. One difficulty with these incentives is that it calls for new behavior and a minimum of understanding of how Healthcare work. I believe that the stick will finally win to get consumers to move.