More than price transparency is needed to empower consumers to shop effectively for lower health care costs (Paul Ginsburg, Brookings)

As the nation still struggles with high healthcare costs that consume larger and larger portions of patient budgets as well as government coffers, the search for ways to get costs under control continues. Total healthcare spending in the U.S. now represents almost 18 percent of our entire economy. One promising cost-savings approach is called “reference pricing,” where the insurer establishes a price ceiling on selected services (joint replacement, colonoscopy, lab tests, etc.). Often, this price cap is based on the average of the negotiated prices for providers in its network, and anything above the reference price has to be covered by the insured consumer.

http://www.brookings.edu/research/articles/2016/07/26-more-than-price-transparency-is-needed-to-shop-for-lower-consumer-health-care-costs-ginsburg