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All kinds of tools are being developed to give consumers the ability to answer how much health care will cost even before they decide where to go, ranging from a primary care doctor's visit to a flu shot. ... Bringing light to health care prices, an area that is famously opaque and hard to navigate, offers for the first time the prospect that patients will truly be able to shop around and save themselves -- and the health care system -- money. But a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association on Tuesday suggests that transparency tools alone aren't going to lead to much, if any, savings. The study followed health care spending at two large employers that offered a web tool that allowed patients to easily shop around and save on health care costs. (Johnson, 5/3)

If people know how much health care services cost, they’ll shop for the best prices and spend less — or so the theory goes. That’s why the Massachusetts law intended to lower costs included a requirement that doctors, hospitals, and insurers provide cost estimates. But a Harvard Medical School study published Tuesday casts doubt on whether such efforts can curb spending. (Freyer, 5/4)

A Harvard study just out in JAMA finds that when health care consumers use price-comparison tools, they don’t end up spending less. In fact, they may even spend a bit more, perhaps because they think higher prices mean better quality. (Goldberg, 5/3)

Here’s a key theory behind cutting health care costs: If consumers knew how much they'd have to pay for various medical services, they could be savvier shoppers, which would ratchet up competition among doctors and hospitals, to cut prices. So, employers and insurers created online tools to help folks distinguish costly providers from less expensive alternatives. (Gorenstein, 5/3)