Price Shopping for Healthcare

The race is on for the best free cost comparison website. There are quite a few challenges for these sites:

1. How does the site generate a source of revenue to keep it operating?
2. How will it compare services that are along the same grain of detail?
3. How will it simplify procedural terms so that they are understandable and not "medical speak"?

There are quite a few challenges to get a fully functional site operating that's of value to the consumer. However, if such a site exists, will people use it? Will it present a value to the consumer who may only care about out-of-pocket costs. Perhaps, quality and cost share estimates can be luring enough for consumers to start major adoption.

Here are a few players in the game:

pricedoc.com

mymedicalcosts.com

healthcarebluebook.com

How Much is Your Doctor Getting From Big Pharma?

Here's a link to a website which lists doctors across the country who receive over $100,000 in payments from pharmaceutical companies. This is one step toward greater transparency and allowing the patient to make better informed decisions about his/her care.

I'm not saying the doctors on this list are incentivized to push certain drugs over another. I am saying that making this information available to the public is very useful for the patient.

http://projects.propublica.org/docdollars/top_earners