Affordability and Quality

Experiencing unexpected price variation for out of network healthcare services may have been part of a shift in how consumers view quality. Affordability – copayments and deductibles – now plays a role in the way consumers define quality providers.   

Good physicians and  nurses followed by affordability and then clinician choice are viewed by most adults as hallmarks of healthcare quality. In Truven Health PULSE research, consumers regarded affordability as the second highest indicator of quality in hospital selection, after good physicians and nurses. This shows a departure from retaining the same physician over time and reflects broader confidence in good clinicians.