Policy analysis and original research on healthcare price transparency, AI navigation, and cost containment from David R. Bell, Founder of TruePrice Care™.
Federal and state price transparency mandates have produced compliance without consequence: prices are posted but consumers are not shopping. This paper argues that price disclosure is a necessary but insufficient condition for market efficiency — and describes a five-component framework (AI navigation, multi-tier price intelligence, employer cost analytics, persistent steerage incentives, and Direct Primary Care realignment) that converts disclosed prices into decisions and market discipline.
Read Full Paper →A tighter perspective-format argument: price disclosure removes only one of five documented barriers to healthcare shopping. Synthesizes the RAND Health Insurance Experiment, contemporary steerage research, and the DPC evidence base to argue that AI-guided navigation and persistent consumer incentives are the missing infrastructure that transparency mandates assume but do not provide.
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