Analyzing the Impact of the Now iKnow Health Care Price Transparency Tool

Summary

This project aims to assess the impact of a web-based health care cost and quality tool that is being implemented by a health plan for its members. The study will focus on members working for medium to large employers that have more than 90% of employees enrolled in deductible and tiered network health plans. The study will use an interrupted time series (ITS) design that includes random allocation of half of these employers to a study arm that will receive enhanced promotion of the tool and a $500 lottery incentive for its use in order to increase take-up. With these two study groups (a "high-dose" group receiving enhanced promotion and a lottery, and a "low-dose" group receiving routine promotion of the tool), the study will be able to evaluate whether access to a price transparency tool leads to reduced costs and more value-driven member behavior, and whether extra promotion increases take-up.

Members in the high-dose group who use the tool will be eligible to enter a monthly lottery to win a $500 prize during the 12-month intervention period. In addition to the lottery, employers in the high-dose group will receive additional promotional strategies such as a mailing and messages through the plan's member web portal to promote the tool and the lottery, and e-mails and flyers for employers to promote the tool and lottery to employees.

The aims of this project are to: 1) examine take-up of the tool and factors that predict take-up; and 2) to examine the impact of the tool on total and out-of-pocket health care costs and utilization

Conditions

• no Specific Condition Targeted
• Use of a Price Transparency Tool

Interventions

OTHER

lottery for tool users to win a $500 prize

Intervention group is eligible to enter a monthly lottery to win a $500 gift card if they use the tool each month.

OTHER

enhanced promotion of the tool to employers and members

Intervention group also receives extra promotion of the tool through mailings, employer outreach, and automated phone calls

Sponsors & Collaborators

• National Institute on Aging (NIA)

  collaborator NIH

• National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

  collaborator OTHER

• Harvard Pilgrim Health Care

  collaborator OTHER

• Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  collaborator OTHER

• Alison Galbraith

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Alison Galbraith, MD, MPH · Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute and Harvard Medical Schooll

• Jonathan Gruber, PhD · Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH

Masking

SINGLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2014-08-31

Primary Completion

2015-12-31

Completion

2015-12-31

Countries

• United States

Study Locations