title: Patients Who Choose Primary Care Physicians Based On Low Office Visit Price Can Realize Broader Savings.
abstract: Price transparency initiatives encourage patients to save money by choosing physicians with a relatively low price per office visit. Given that the price of such visits represents a small fraction of total spending, the extent of the savings from choosing such physicians has not been clear. Using a national sample of commercial claims data, we compared the care received by patients of high- and low-price primary care physicians. The median price for an established patient's office visit was $60 among low-price physicians and $86 among high-price physicians (price was calculated as reimbursement plus out-of-pocket spending). Patients of low-price physicians also received, on average, relatively low-price lab tests, imaging, and other procedures. Total spending per year among patients cared for by low-price physicians was $690 less than spending among patients cared for by high-price physicians. There were no consistent differences in patients' use of services between high- and low-price physicians. Despite modest differences in physicians' office visit prices, patients of low-price physicians had substantively lower overall spending, compared to patients of high-price physicians.
authors.affiliation: Ateev Mehrotra (Mehrotra@hcp.med.harvard.edu) is an associate professor in the Department of Health Care Policy at Harvard Medical School and a hospitalist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, both in Boston, Massachusetts.
authors.forename: Ateev
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mehrotra
authors.affiliation: Peter J. Huckfeldt is an assistant professor in the Division of Health Policy and Management, School of Public Health, at the University of Minnesota, in Minneapolis.
authors.forename: Peter J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Huckfeldt
authors.affiliation: Amelia M. Haviland is an associate professor at the H. John Heinz III College of Public Policy and Management at Carnegie Mellon University, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
authors.forename: Amelia M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Haviland
authors.affiliation: Laura Gascue is a programmer and quantitative analyst at the Leonard D. Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics at the University of Southern California, in Los Angeles.
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Gascue
authors.affiliation: Neeraj Sood is a professor at the Leonard D. Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics at the University of Southern California.
authors.forename: Neeraj
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Sood
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003132:Commerce / Q000191:economics*; D017046:Cost Savings / Q000191:economics*; D005260:Female; D005102:Health Expenditures; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007349:Insurance, Health, Reimbursement; D008875:Middle Aged; D009819:Office Visits / Q000191:economics*; D058007:Physicians, Primary Care / Q000191:economics*; D014481:United States
keywords: Cost of Health Care; Primary Care