ROCKVILLE, Md. -- (March 5, 2012) -- When asked to choose a health care provider based only on cost, consumers choose the more expensive option, according to a new study led by the University of Oregon's Judith H. Hibbard and appearing in the March issue of Health Affairs.
The study -- funded by the U.S. Department of Health's Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality -- found that consumers equate cost with quality and worry that lower cost means lower quality care. While higher costs may indicate unnecessary services or inefficiencies, cost information alone does not help consumers get the best value for their health care dollar, according to the study.
The study, as described in an agency news release, concluded that when consumers are shown the right mix of cost and quality information, they are better able to choose high-value health care providers -- defined as those who deliver high-quality care at a lower cost.
Health care consumers want to visit high-quality doctors and hospitals, and many public report cards are available to help them compare providers. However, few report cards include information on cost, and there has been little scientific evidence to guide the presentation of that information to help consumers choose high value providers.
"This study has important implications for the more than 150 public reports on physician and hospital care," said Carolyn M. Clancy, M.D., director of the HHS Agency for Healthcare Research. "It's not simply a question of providing information on cost, but providing it in a way that is integrated with quality scores."
The team led by Hibbard, a professor of health policy in the UO Department of Planning, Public Policy and Management in the School of Architecture and Allied Arts, studied 1,400 employees in a randomized experiment to find out how they responded to different presentations of quality and cost information.
When providers were clearly identified as high quality, cost had less influence on consumers' decisions, and consumers were more likely to choose a provider with lower cost but better quality than a high-cost provider.
The study explored a number of ways to present cost and quality information effectively, using combinations of symbols such as dollar signs and stars, specific information such as dollar amounts and percentages, and labels such as "appropriate use" or "better." Consumers were more likely to choose high-value providers when presented with strong, unambiguous quality and cost information.
In addition, a check mark indicating a "high-value" provider, along with cost and quality information, also helped consumers use the information to make high-value choices. Given strong quality signals, consumers also were more confident in their choices.
The study's findings have implications for the design of public report cards that offer consumers information on the quality and cost of health care providers. Although report producers have been adopting strategies to help consumers process and use comparative information on quality and cost, many reporting websites still use overly technical information or present other barriers to easy comprehension, according to the study.
For additional agency information about public reporting, please visit http://www.ahrq.gov/path/publicreporting.htm.
About the University of Oregon
The University of Oregon is among the 108 institutions chosen from 4,633 U.S. universities for top-tier designation of "Very High Research Activity" in the 2010 Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. The UO also is one of two Pacific Northwest members of the Association of American Universities.
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