Outcomes of price transparency policies for healthcare services in the United States: A systematic review

IF 3.4 3区医学 Q1 HEALTH POLICY & SERVICES

Health Policy and Technology Pub Date : 2025-02-01 DOI:10.1016/j.hlpt.2025.100973

John C. Lin , Julia S. Gillette , Angela S. Zhu , Dustin D. French , Margaret Weir , David J. Meyers , Paul B. Greenberg

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Background

This systematic review evaluates the role of price transparency policies for healthcare services in influencing price availability, price awareness, and health costs in the US.

Methods

We searched five databases for English-language studies evaluating price transparency policies in the US; literature reviews, perspectives, case reports, non-healthcare studies, and non-US studies were excluded. Two investigators independently conducted data extraction and quality assessment. We examined study risk of bias and quality using Cochrane and National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute tools, qualitatively summarized study findings, and quantitatively analyzed included studies.

Results

Eighty-seven studies were included. Hospital price transparency mandates faced early issues with low compliance. Government price transparency programs were associated with reduced price growth for some services, but many lacked comprehensive pricing data by payer and provider. These findings were limited by the low quality of included studies.

Conclusions

Existing price transparency policies appear subject to substantial limitations, although emerging evidence suggests that they hold promise for changing price growth and healthcare utilization. Policymakers should consider modifying price transparency policies to become more robust, accurate, and user-friendly.

Public Interest Summary

In a recent review of 87 scientific studies, we investigated the efficacy of US policies in making healthcare prices clear and accessible to the public. Although hospitals often struggled with providing accurate and easy-to-use price information, government programs that shared this information helped slow down the rise in prices and encouraged people to use more affordable healthcare, especially for medical imaging. As healthcare prices keep rising, our findings suggest that better-designed government programs could help make prices clearer for everyone, potentially saving money and helping patients make informed decisions.

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来源期刊

Health Policy and Technology Medicine-Health Policy

CiteScore

9.20

自引率

3.30%

发文量

审稿时长

88 days

期刊介绍： Health Policy and Technology (HPT), is the official journal of the Fellowship of Postgraduate Medicine (FPM), a cross-disciplinary journal, which focuses on past, present and future health policy and the role of technology in clinical and non-clinical national and international health environments. HPT provides a further excellent way for the FPM to continue to make important national and international contributions to development of policy and practice within medicine and related disciplines. The aim of HPT is to publish relevant, timely and accessible articles and commentaries to support policy-makers, health professionals, health technology providers, patient groups and academia interested in health policy and technology. Topics covered by HPT will include: - Health technology, including drug discovery, diagnostics, medicines, devices, therapeutic delivery and eHealth systems - Cross-national comparisons on health policy using evidence-based approaches - National studies on health policy to determine the outcomes of technology-driven initiatives - Cross-border eHealth including health tourism - The digital divide in mobility, access and affordability of healthcare - Health technology assessment (HTA) methods and tools for evaluating the effectiveness of clinical and non-clinical health technologies - Health and eHealth indicators and benchmarks (measure/metrics) for understanding the adoption and diffusion of health technologies - Health and eHealth models and frameworks to support policy-makers and other stakeholders in decision-making - Stakeholder engagement with health technologies (clinical and patient/citizen buy-in) - Regulation and health economics