Higher out-of-pocket fees linked to elevated pain expectations and lower appointment uptake in Carnegie Mellon experiments

Because the design was experimental rather than observational, it isolates price as the causal variable but cannot yet quantify real-world no-show rates or long-term health consequences. Next steps require field studies that track actual appointment completion after transparent price disclosure and test interventions such as payment plans or sliding-scale framing. Regulatory attention to cost transparency alone is unlikely to address the emotional spillover identified here.