Personal opinion (as a health economist) is that this is a nice policy, but probably not going to do that much.
You as a consumer now have the ability to search, but do you have an incentive to do so? Do the savings come to you?
Some of it, perhaps. But it's likely not that much and only under some circumstances.
E.g., if you are just faced w/ a copay on a visit, your copay is going to be the same at two facilities.
Coinsurance is different - there you may realize some savings. IF you are below your deductible for the year that is also different. You may realize savings and care.
But there are a decent number of patients who for most of their visits will not see much incentive to search.
Also... it is possible for these releases to help hospitals coordinate on prices in a way which they currently do not. (Tacit collusion, not explicit, back-room, definitely-illegal collusion.)
Hospital A now knows exactly what Hospital B gets from Aetna, so Hospital A may realize it can hold out for more w/ Aetna b/c Aetna is willing to pay their competitor more for the same procedure.
Both of these questions are above all empirical questions and one to which we do not yet know the answer. I would be wary of confident predictions.
I respectfully disagree to one piece of your logic.
The effect. The effect will be strong.
The logic that you posit to contradict this is that for most patients "there will be no incentive to search for better prices". That seems to ignore entirely the dynamics of other established businesses like supermarkets.
Most people go to supermarkets and the vast majority are not looking for the absolute best price or even the median price. However supermarkets battle out in pricing to catch the few customers that they know are price sensitive. Its the minority rule. This is a positive externality by which everyone benefits.
This same dynamic will be observed in healthcare.
I agree in that much of it is unknown and also the time horizon is very uncertain. But the effect will be felt and it will be profound.
You as a consumer now have the ability to search, but do you have an incentive to do so? Do the savings come to you?
Some of it, perhaps. But it's likely not that much and only under some circumstances.
E.g., if you are just faced w/ a copay on a visit, your copay is going to be the same at two facilities.
Coinsurance is different - there you may realize some savings. IF you are below your deductible for the year that is also different. You may realize savings and care.
But there are a decent number of patients who for most of their visits will not see much incentive to search.
Also... it is possible for these releases to help hospitals coordinate on prices in a way which they currently do not. (Tacit collusion, not explicit, back-room, definitely-illegal collusion.)
Hospital A now knows exactly what Hospital B gets from Aetna, so Hospital A may realize it can hold out for more w/ Aetna b/c Aetna is willing to pay their competitor more for the same procedure.
Both of these questions are above all empirical questions and one to which we do not yet know the answer. I would be wary of confident predictions.