This paper shows that consumers respond to prices for complex health care when they can easily assess out-of-pocket prices. Health care cost containment efforts increasingly incentivize priceshopping, despite a dearth of evidence that this steers consumers toward lower-priced care for major medical services. I show that consumers shift toward lower-priced hospitals in the highly simplified price information environment of insurance plans with tiered hospital networks. Consumers observe a single predictable, welldefined price that applies to a broad range of services within each of at most three hospital tiers. Within three years, expected partialequilibrium savings reach 8–17 percent of baseline spending. JEL: I11, I13, D83

中文翻译：

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简单价格下的医疗保健需求：来自分层医院网络的证据

本文表明，当消费者可以轻松评估自付费用时，他们会对复杂的医疗保健价格做出反应。医疗保健成本控制努力越来越多地激励价格购物，尽管缺乏证据表明这会引导消费者对主要医疗服务进行低价护理。我表明，在具有分层医院网络的保险计划的高度简化的价格信息环境中，消费者转向价格较低的医院。消费者观察到适用于最多三个医院等级中的每一个的广泛服务的单一可预测、明确定义的价格。在三年内，预期的部分均衡储蓄达到基准支出的 8-17%。JEL：I11、I13、D83