Patients' Right to Save

The healthcare sector lacks most hallmarks of a functioning marketplace. Patients don’t know the price of care before treatment, are often forced to see more expensive doctors or obtain care at more expensive facilities, and often receive little or no financial benefit when they do shop for and visit high-quality, lower-cost providers. But states can lead the way to restore the healthcare marketplace. Our Patient’s Right to Save reform requires providers to publish cash prices for procedures, gives patients deductible credit for paying cash prices below their insurer’s lowest negotiated rate, and finally incentivizes shopping after a patient’s deductible by letting the patient split the insurer’s cost savings when the patient pays a cash price below the insurer’s lowest negotiated rate. This policy realigns incentives to encourage patients at all levels of spending to seek high-value, lower-cost care, even for patients with chronic conditions and high annual spending.