Yes and no. Outpatient procedures could and should be price shopped. Do you have a relationship with the lady who draws your blood? The MRI tech? Not usually, o

Yes and no. Outpatient procedures could and should be price shopped. Do you have a relationship with the lady who draws your blood? The MRI tech? Not usually, or not a strong enough one that would cause changing providers a high friction experience. Birth is a perfect example to make your point of an existing, usually long term, relationship because of the typical women's health regimen. More usual however is you finding you need a procedure (maybe soon but not emergency), you then ask for a referral to a specialist or ask friends and do google searches to try to get a sense that the specialist isn't a quack. You could price shop at that point. Instead, the system is built upon referrals and kickbacks. Although, kickbacks are illegal now so they form physician groups which is basically a kickback in the form of profit sharing.