We have heard consistently that American consumers are too isolated from the true cost of their health care and therefore do not ask if the suggested treatment is necessary or priced appropriately. The NY Times today has an article on the latest development to provide consumers access to doctors' fees (http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/11/bringing-comparison-shopping-to-the-doctors-office/?scp=1&sq=doctor%20pricing&st=Search). A company named Castlight Health, which is a joint venture various venture capitalists and the Cleveland Clinic, is now offering pricing information gleaned from insurance company EOBs. Well while information on pricing is certainly good, what about quality? From the article:
Gastlight plans to add quality measurements to its price information. There are already several providers of that information, though there is no standard set of quality measurements in medicine. But even with quality ratings, there are many procedures for which Castlight’s service is not applicable. Someone suffering a heart attack is not going to check the Web before calling the ambulance, and a patient who discovers he needs emergency brain surgery is likely to prioritize quality above all else.
So they plan to add it in the future. Right now then in my opinion the data they will be providing on cost is essentially useless.
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