Introduction

Searching for pricing information prior to receiving medical care is commonplace among half of Americans, particularly among the uninsured and those with high deductibles.1 Additionally, more than half of Americans are unaware that prices vary among providers for the same service.1 To address this knowledge barrier, protect patients and increase healthcare competition, the Executive Order on Improving Price and Quality Transparency in American Healthcare to Put Patients First was issued to encourage price transparency in healthcare.2 As of 1 January 2021, in addition to posting their standard charges, hospitals were required to make at least 300 ‘shoppable services’ charges public online using an accessible, consumer-friendly price estimator. These price estimators allow patients to determine the amounts they are estimated to pay for ‘shoppable services’. We examined the utility of this executive order by analysing and comparing estimated prices of Medicare’s seven most …