If you’re searching for ways to save money on healthcare, you are certainly not alone. In 2014, U.S. consumers spent a whopping $3.0 trillion on healthcare expenditures, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). That mind-boggling total represents nearly 18% of the U.S. gross domestic product. (For more on this, read The Wealthy Spend the Most on Healthcare.) To make matters worse, nearly a quarter of Americans between the ages of 19 and 64 were considered underinsured in 2014 thanks to high deductibles, according to a Commonwealth Fund survey. As an increasing number of consumers realize they cannot afford to pay steep medical bills, many are neglecting to get the healthcare they need. According to a Gallup poll, one in three Americans say they have put off medical treatment because of the exorbitant cost – and most of these folks were putting off treatment for serious conditions. Fortunately, employers are taking notice of these shocking healthcare cost statistics. In an effort to help their employees stay healthy and productive, some companies are offering valuable tools to help workers get the biggest bang for their healthcare buck. Price Shopping to Save Money on Healthcare While Americans are willing to bargain-hunt for everything from clothes to cars, many consumers don’t realize they can also shop around for healthcare deals. In fact, healthcare prices vary greatly from locality to locality, according to a “Health Affairs” study – and the distances aren't necessarily that great. For instance, a pregnant patient will pay $522 for an ultrasound in Cleveland, Ohio. However, if she were to drive 60 miles to nearby Canton, she would pay as little as $183 for the same procedure. As healthcare costs continue to skyrocket for employers and employees on high-deductible health plans are forced to pay more cash out of pocket, shopping around for healthcare deals is more critical than ever. (For more on this, see How High-Deductible Health Plans Work.) This is why many companies are offering healthcare price comparison tools to encourage employees to bargain-shop for medical services. However, simply offering these price-comparison tools does not always result in significant savings for employers and their employees, according to a study published in the “Journal of the American Medical Association.” Why? Because employees simply aren’t using them. In the study, researchers followed healthcare spending at two large companies offering a user-friendly online healthcare tool that allowed employees to shop around for the lowest prices. Over the course of a year, a mere 10% of the 150,000 employees even logged into the website. When those few employees did access the tool, nearly half of the price comparison searches they conducted were for procedures costing $1,250 or more – making them more expensive than the employees’ deductibles. Because the employees would not end up saving any money, they were less motivated to opt for the cheaper choice. Giving Employees a Cut In light of this new research, some employers have decided to sweeten the pot by offering employees a cut of the savings when they choose cheaper healthcare services. Through these programs, employees who choose lower-cost services are rewarded with anywhere from $25 to $500 in checks or gift cards. The state of Kentucky, for example, started offering healthcare pricing services to employees in 2013 via a shopping tool created by Vitals. Around the same time, the state also started offering high-deductible health plans. The Vitals tool offers employees extra incentive to spend wisely on healthcare by offering them a cut of savings – and the program has paid off handsomely for Kentucky. The state saved $10 million between 2013 and 2015, and $1.1 million of those savings went to reward price-conscious employees. Vitals pulls data from millions of health claims to compare prices on 200 “shoppable” medical procedures, including MRIs, blood work, mammograms and CT scans. According to the company, the eight employers who use Vitals saved $12 million on common healthcare procedures, and employees raked in nearly $1.5 million in rewards and saved an average of $625 per treatment. Healthcare Bluebook is another service that offers a both a healthcare price comparison tool and an employee rewards program. Both Vitals and Healthcare Bluebook consider quality of care, offering information such as patient ratings and scores by the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services when available.