Start-up seeks to provide consumers with health care comparison shopping guide

The New York Times: In the U.S., people generally compare prices on everything from groceries to cars, but not in regard to their health care. And even if patients wanted to be health care comparison shoppers, getting the necessary information is not easy. "It is a hole in the market that some companies see as an opportunity, especially because many Americans will soon have to pay more attention to what they are paying for, rather than count on insurance to cover everything. ... A start-up financed by prominent venture capitalists and the Cleveland Clinic, Castlight Health, aims to change that by building a search engine for health care prices. Patients using Castlight could search for doctors that offer a service nearby and find out how much they will charge, depending on their insurance coverage. A few others are starting to publish health care prices, including Thomson Reuters, a Tennessee start-up called Change: healthcare, the New Hampshire government, which created a comparison shopping tool for residents, and health insurers" (Miller, 6/10).

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This article was reprinted from khn.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.