And why don’t we require healthcare providers to compete for our business the same way Amazon makes retailers and manufacturers go toe to toe on price and quality? “People are eager for pricing information in healthcare and it’s an area that creates so much frustration,” said Mark Menton, HealthSparq’s general manager. The question is: Is the juice worth the squeeze?”By which he meant that the Amazonification of healthcare shopping could distract from the more important job of actually lowering costs. AdvertisementBut Glenn Melnick, a health economist at USC, said the rules are “quite weak” and may be ignored by some medical providers. Healthcare providers focus almost exclusively on the quick score, with little regard for whether a patient feels he or she was treated fairly.

Source: Los Angeles Times May 28, 2021 12:02 UTC