We have the tools to shop around and save on health care costs — but we aren’t using them. A new Harvard Medical School study reveals that consumer access to price transparency tools doesn’t make them any more popular or likely to decrease health care spending.

Do we not want to save money, especially in a health care climate in which out-of-pocket costs are soaring? Or are we just lazy?

Out-of-pocket spending for adults with employer-sponsored insurance rose from $662 per capita in 2012 to $707 in 2013 — that’s 6.9 percent. That’s according to the Health Care Cost Institute. And a Kaiser Family Foundation report found that out-pocket-costs grew by 77 percent from 2004 to 2014.

Not only are deductibles higher for many Americans, but from 2004 to 2014 the average payments enrollees put toward deductibles went up 256 percent — from $99 to $353. Coinsurance payments went up 107 percent from $117 to $242, while copayments decreased 26 percent from $206 to $152, Kaiser said.

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Access Doesn’t Matter
In the Harvard study, researchers assessed the Truven Health Analytics Treatment Cost Calculator, an online price transparency tool that shares out-of-pocket fees on everything from lab tests to doctor visits. It bases the estimated costs on the user’s health insurance plan and on how much that person has spent during the year.

In 2011 and 2012, two large companies offered the process to their employees. The researchers looked at the care of 149,000 employees who were offered the tool and compared it to the care from 296,000 employees who were not given access to the program.

Even when people were given access to Truven, only a measly 10 percent of the people used it.

Dr. Sunita Desai, a research fellow in health care policy at Harvard Medical School and lead author of the study, told LifeZette her findings question the traditional notion that people will use incentives if offered.

“It’s not going to be enough,” she said. “Price transparency is not some sort of cure-all for rising health care costs.”

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More than half of the searches were for services that exceeded $1,000. Some deductibles are higher than the procedures, Desai explained, so people won’t save money regardless of which provider they choose — but the health care company may save if the person chooses a provider that costs less.

Price is just one factor that goes into how patients choose providers, she added. “Patients may not be willing to drive the extra 10 miles to go to a low-cost provider,” she said.

Some consumers may not be aware of the transparency tools.

“It also could just take time,” Desai said, adding that comparison shopping may be the new norm in a few years.  “It does require a change in thinking [in terms of] how to navigate the health care system.”

Paul Ketchel, CEO of MDsave.com, adds that many transparency sites use a complicated price estimation that can confuse patients. “Therefore it is difficult for users to access these prices in the market and they do not use these resources because they offer limited value,” said Ketchel, whose user base has grown significantly in the past two years.

Timing Matters
David Newman, executive director of the Health Care Cost Institute, said online comparison tools are only useful for certain situations. His company runs guroo.com, a tool that shares prices for common procedures and services on a local, state, and national level.

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“I’m not going to pull out my iPad [to shop for a better price] while having a heart attack in the ambulance,” Newman said, emphasizing that comparing costs during certain key health events doesn’t make sense.

For other services, such as knee surgeries, patients have more time to shop around. That’s when shopping tools come in handy and can provide valuable savings; the situations have a high price variable and the situation isn’t urgent.

Newman said transparency platforms aren’t just for shopping — they aim to get higher priced providers to lower their costs to a more affordable range. Many consumers may not realize certain services are shoppable, which is one reason they don’t always use the tools — nor should they.

“For the vast majority of people with insurance who are not in a high-deductible health plan, it’s just one more hassle,” Newman added.