Guess what? Transparency leads to lower prices

Health Affairs published a study on patients who needed MRIs. The major insurer who participated in the study offered one group of patients information about which providers offered the procedure at lower costs; the control group continued to not have easy access to that information across providers. The unsurprising result was that areas where the insurer that offered information, experienced decreases in the cost of MRIs (even for patients who didn't participate in the study). The prices in the areas of the control group? Those prices went up.

I didn't read the study, but an additional detailed covered here indicates that patients who were offered prices about the procedure were not penalized for selecting a higher-cost provider. If that means that patients paid the same amount out-of-pocket regardless of whether they went to a low-cost provider or a high-cost provider, then the study suggests the somewhat surprising conclusion that patients are willing to save money even when it's not their money. What's more surprising, however, is that health insurers have waited so long to roll out pricing information.