Findings from University of California Update Knowledge of Health and Society (Reference Pricing Changes The ‘Choice Architecture’ Of Health Care For…

Findings from University of California Update Knowledge of Health and Society (Reference Pricing Changes The 'Choice Architecture' Of Health Care For Consumers)

By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Health & Medicine Week -- New research on Health and Medicine - Health and Society is the subject of a report. According to news reporting originating in Berkeley, California, by NewsRx journalists, research stated, "Reference pricing in health insurance creates incentives for patients to select for nonemergency services providers that charge relatively low prices and still offer high quality of care. It changes the 'choice architecture' by offering standard coverage if the patient chooses cost-effective providers but requires considerable consumer cost sharing if more expensive alternatives are selected."

The news reporters obtained a quote from the research from the University of California, "The short-term impact of reference pricing has been to shift patient volumes from hospital-based to freestanding surgical, diagnostic, imaging, and laboratory facilities. This article summarizes reference pricing's impacts to date on patient choice, provider prices, surgical complications, and employer spending and estimates its potential impacts if expanded to more services and a broader population. Reference pricing induces consumers to select lower-price alternatives for all of the forms of care studied, leading to significant reductions in prices paid and spending incurred by insurers and employers. The impact on consumer cost sharing is mixed, with some studies finding higher copayments and some lower. We conclude with a discussion of the incentives created for providers to redesign their clinical processes and for efficient providers to expand into price-sensitive markets."

According to the news reporters, the research concluded: "Over time, reference pricing may increase pressures for price competition and lead to further cost-reducing innovations in health care products and processes."

For more information on this research see: Reference Pricing Changes The 'Choice Architecture' Of Health Care For Consumers. Health Affairs, 2017;36(3):524-530. Health Affairs can be contacted at: Project Hope, 7500 Old Georgetown Rd, Ste 600, Bethesda, MD 20814-6133, USA (see also Health and Medicine - Health and Society).

Our news correspondents report that additional information may be obtained by contacting J.C. Robinson, University of California, Sch Public Hlth, Hlth Econ, Berkeley, CA 94720, United States. Additional authors for this research include T.T. Brown and C. Whaley.

Keywords for this news article include: Berkeley, California, United States, North and Central America, Health and Society, Health and Medicine, University of California.

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