Increasing price transparency in the Dutch healthcare market does not affect provider choice

Husiatyński, Maciej, Tobias Klein, Misja Mikkers and Alex van Vorstenbosch

No 15981, CEPR Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic Policy Research

Abstract: Price transparency is often viewed as an effective way to encourage price shopping and thereby lower healthcare expenditure. We use individual claims data to estimate the short-run effect of unexpected publication of prices by a major Dutch health insurer on spending and provider choice. The media reported prominently on potential savings and visits to websites providing information on prices initially increased. Another major insurer had negotiated different prices and did not publish them, so its patients serve as the control group in a difference-in-differences analysis. We first perform a case study of 6 frequent, non-emergency dermatological procedures. We find that spending, the likelihood to visit a new provider, and the distance traveled to the chosen provider remained unaffected. Next, we analyze a broader set of 675 procedures. We estimate the effect for each procedure and then perform a Bayesian meta-analysis to summarize the results. Again, we find that there is no effect of price transparency on spending. We provide an explanation for this and make a suggestion for a policy change that would make it more likely that patients choose cheaper providers.

Keywords: Price transparency; Healthcare demand; Provider choice (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I11 I13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea and nep-ias
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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