Data + code supplement for "Health Care Demand Under Simple Prices"

This paper shows that consumers respond to prices for complex health care when they can easily assess out-of-pocket prices. Health care cost containment efforts increasingly incentivize price-shopping, despite a dearth of evidence that this steers consumers toward lower-priced care for major medical services. I show that consumers shift toward lower-priced hospitals in the highly simplified price information environment of insurance plans with tiered hospital networks. Consumers observe a single predictable, well-defined price that applies to a broad range of services within each of at most three hospital tiers. Within three years, expected partial-equilibrium savings reach 8–17 percent of baseline spending.

本研究表明，当消费者能够便捷评估自付费用（out-of-pocket price）时，其会对复杂医疗服务的价格做出响应。尽管目前缺乏证据表明，此类价格比价行为能够引导消费者在大型医疗服务中选择定价更低的机构，但医疗费用管控举措正日益激励消费者开展价格比价。本研究证实，在采用分级医院网络（tiered hospital networks）的医疗保险计划所构建的高度简化的价格信息环境中，消费者会转向定价更低的医院。消费者可获知单一、可预测且定义清晰的价格，该价格适用于至多三级医院层级中每一级医院所覆盖的广泛医疗服务范畴。在三年内，局部均衡（partial-equilibrium）视角下的预计成本节约可达基准支出的8%至17%。