Gartner Survey Shows Healthcare CMOs Can Lead on Cost Transparency for a Competitive Advantage

Q&A with Chris Beland, Vice President Analyst, Gartner

As healthcare costs rise and consumer anxiety deepens, cost transparency is becoming far more than a compliance issue. A Gartner survey of 324 U.S. consumers, conducted in January 2026, showed that fear of unknown charges is already disrupting the care journey, with 30% of consumers saying they have avoided treatment out of fear of incurring charges, while 55% say they would be more likely to seek treatment if they knew the cost upfront.

We spoke with Chris Beland, Vice President Analyst in the Gartner Marketing Practice, about why healthcare CMOs should treat price clarity as a trust-building, journey-enabling and growth-driving opportunity, and what brands need to do now to make cost information clearer, simpler and more actionable for consumers.

Q: Why is cost transparency becoming such an urgent issue for healthcare CMOs right now?

A: Cost clarity is not just about informing consumers; it can directly influence whether they move forward with care at all. Gartner’s research found that 30% of consumers have avoided treatment out of fear of incurring charges, and 28% have even forgone elements of care such as diagnostics to save money. At the same time, 55% of consumers say they would be more likely to seek treatment if they knew the costs upfront.

For CMOs, that changes the mandate because in a market where brands compete on experience as much as outcomes, reducing financial uncertainty can be just as powerful as messaging around quality, convenience or reputation. The organizations that make costs easier to understand and act on will have an opportunity to build trust earlier and prevent further fragmentation of the healthcare journey.

Q: Healthcare organizations have said they’re making progress on transparency. What’s still missing for consumers?

A: Many organizations have made progress toward compliance, but compliance is not the same thing as clarity. While much of the industry is meeting regulatory requirements, the consumer experience still falls short because the information often isn’t easy to find, understand or use.

In healthcare delivery, for example, Gartner found that 73% of index brands place their cost-of-care tool in the Pay My Bill section of the website which is far too late in the journey for a consumer who is still deciding whether to seek care.

Even when estimate tools are available, only 15% of brands provide guidance on next steps after an estimate is generated, only 37% provide FAQs, and just 18% provide instructions on how to use the tool. In other words, the industry is often presenting information without helping consumers interpret it or act on it.

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"Cost clarity is not just about informing consumers; it can directly influence whether they move forward with care at all."

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Q: What should healthcare CMOs be doing differently to make cost transparency more useful and effective?

A: The first shift is to treat cost information as part of the consumer journey, not as an isolated utility. That means surfacing pricing content much earlier such as when people are researching options, evaluating providers or trying to understand coverage, instead of burying it in billing or support sections. CMOs can evolve website content and utilities to provide clearer and more understandable cost information, while also aligning that information to the consumer’s “next best action.”

CMOs also should not assume consumers are only looking for the lowest price. Once people understand cost, they can weigh it alongside other differentiators such as quality of care, convenience, reputation, procedure experience and success rates. That is where transparency can become a genuine brand advantage: not by promising cheapest, but by making the experience feel clearer, fairer and more manageable.

Q: Where does AI fit into this, and how can it help healthcare brands make pricing feel more personal and actionable?

A: AI can help solve one of the biggest challenges in healthcare pricing: complexity. Cost of care varies across benefit designs, treatment paths, coverage rules and patient circumstances, which makes it difficult to provide meaningful information at scale using static content alone.

CMOs should increasingly use AI to deliver more relevant, personalized and real-time guidance, especially in digital environments where consumers now expect more direct answers.

This is especially important because the way consumers find and consume healthcare information is changing. People are increasingly accessing healthcare content through answer engines and AI agents, not just traditional website navigation. That raises the bar for healthcare brands who now need to create detailed, well-structured content and tools that can answer highly specific consumer questions and guide them toward an appropriate next step.