Healthcare Bluebook and MDsave.com out to improve price transparency

Healthcare Bluebook, a developer of an online price-checking tool for healthcare visits, procedures, tests and medications, and healthcare marketplace MDsave.com are collaborating to allow consumers to price healthcare services at pre-negotiated rates. The collaboration is being driven by the increasing number of consumers carrying high-deductible health plans, according to both companies.

While more consumers are turning to online pricing tools as they seek information about the price of health care procedures, patients need to be cautious about shopping strictly on price, says healthcare analysts. One potential drawback to publishing prices is that consumers may forget to factor in quality of care  and instead shop strictly on price, says Mark Fendrick, IHPI member and director of U-M Center for Value-Based Insurance Design.

“Consumers care more about the cost of healthcare than about the cost of quality healthcare,” Fendrick says.

Searching for healthcare services that are less likely to have a wide variation in quality among providers is one way consumers can avoid sacrificing quality of care. For example, procedures such as MRI’s, colonoscopies, blood tests and mammograms tend to vary less in quality than a surgical procedure, Fendrick says.