Private health market 'not working well for consumers' - OFT

It has called for more transparent information to be given to patients and their doctors about the quality and price of care they may undergo. The OFT criticised consultant-provider relationships and suggested there were local monopolies of providers that could artificially raise private medical insurance (PMI) costs. The findings are preliminary ones as part of the OFT's review of the private healthcare market. Its key concern was ‘the lack of easily comparable information on the quality and price of different providers and consultants'. The OFT report said: ‘From the evidence ...