TY - JOUR T1 - What does a hip replacement cost?: The transparency imperative in 2013comment on “obtaining consumer prices from us hospitals for a common surgical procedure” AU - Steinmetz A, Emanuel EJ Y1 - 2013/03/25 N1 - 10.1001/jamainternmed.2013.465 JO - JAMA Internal Medicine SP - 432 EP - 434 VL - 173 IS - 6 N2 - In the 1950s, the American automobile industry was rife with information asymmetries, leaving prospective buyers at the mercy of the dealer. Rarely would a buyer know the full price of a new car until after he or she had committed to buying it. Rarer still would that buyer know anything about the quality of the vehicle he or she had decided to purchase. And while every new Ford and Chevy came with a manufacturer's suggested retail price (MSRP), and various quality and safety metrics, none of that information was required to be disclosed prior to a sale. Exorbitant shipping charges and phony “preparation fees” were frequently tacked on without the buyer's knowledge. Price disparities from dealer to dealer were exceedingly vast. The result in the mid-20th century was a broken automobile industry that stuck American families with unnecessarily high bills.1- 2 SN - 2168-6106 M3 - doi: 10.1001/jamainternmed.2013.465 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/jamainternmed.2013.465 ER -