How do most people view the association between health care prices and quality of care? Drawing on previous HCFO-funded work [1], grantees David Schleifer and Carolin Hagelskamp of Public Agenda sought to answer this question. They found that most Americans do not believe that price and quality are associated, but a substantial minority did perceive an association or were unsure, underscoring the need to report quality information alongside price information. The findings were published in Health Affairs [2], and their work was recently featured in Kaiser Health News [3], Reuters [4], Becker’s Hospital Review [5], Forbes [6], Healthcare Informatics [7], Portland Business Journal [8], and Healthcare Finance News [9], among others. Coauthor David Schleifer also discussed the findings in a WTOP-FM interview, which can be listened to as a Health Affairs podcast [10].
Links:
[1] http://www.hcfo.org/grants/price-data-solicitation-public-perspectives-price-data-patterns-use-perceived-abilities-and-b
[2] http://content.healthaffairs.org/content/35/4/647.full
[3] http://khn.org/news/prices-and-health-care-quality-many-consumers-dont-see-a-link/
[4] http://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-cost-quality-idUSKCN0X31ZM
[5] http://www.beckershospitalreview.com/finance/americans-don-t-link-healthcare-cost-and-quality.html
[6] http://www.forbes.com/sites/brucejapsen/2016/04/05/if-healthcare-prices-emerge-americans-wont-link-to-quality/#eba37d74bbd7
[7] http://www.healthcare-informatics.com/article/how-are-consumer-perceptions-around-healthcare-cost-and-quality-shifting-one-study-probes
[8] http://www.bizjournals.com/portland/blog/health-care-inc/2016/04/when-it-comes-to-health-care-consumers-dont-think.html?ana=RSS%26s%3Darticle_search&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+bizj_portland+%28Portland+Business+Journal%29&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher
[9] http://www.healthcarefinancenews.com/news/no-glaring-link-between-healthcare-prices-quality-care-new-research-finds
[10] http://www.healthaffairs.org/podcasts/comparison-shopping-for-health-care
[11] http://www.hcfo.org/topics/consumer-behavior
[12] http://www.hcfo.org/topics/price-data-and-transparency