In health care, costs can come across like “market priced” items on menus in upscale restaurants.

Accurate information about what health services will cost patients is often not available at key decision points, yet surprisingly high bills can undermine public trust in clinicians and organizations.

Negative health consequences from costly care are referred to as financial toxicity and should be included in informed consent discussions.

This comic compares a lack of price transparency in health care billing to psychic card readings.

Practice ownership shifts to various employment models have amplified the problem of physician-employees of some US health care companies not knowing about services billed in their names.

This article analyzes differences in prescription drug pricing transparency practices among 3 Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development member nations.

These key steps are ones health sector stakeholders should take to help patients and clinicians use pricing information to inform health decision making.

More transparent pricing would allow patients and families to make better decisions, but there are limitations to how reliably it promotes efficiency and market discipline.

This article applies principlism to what a “shoppable service” model would demand of clinicians in practice.

Online tools intended to make health care purchasing resemble “consumerism” have had little effect on improving transparency for patients.