US direct-to-consumer medical service advertisements fail to provide adequate information on quality and cost of care

In the 1970s, the Federal Trade Commission declared that allowing medical providers to advertise directly to consumers would be "providing the public with truthful information about the price, quality or other aspects of their service." However, our understanding of the advertising content is highly limited.

To assess whether direct-to-consumer medical service advertisements provide relevant information on access, quality and cost of care, a content analysis was conducted.

Television and online advertisements for medical services directly targeting consumers were collected in two major urban centres in Nevada, USA, identifying 313 television advertisements and 200 non-duplicate online advertisements.

Both television and online advertisements reliably conveyed information about the services provided and how to make an appointment. At the same time, less than half of the advertisements featured insurance information and hours of operation and less than a quarter of them contained information regarding the quality and price of care. The claims of quality were substantiated in even fewer advertisements. The scarcity of quality and cost information was more severe in television advertisements.

There is little evidence that medical service advertising, in its current form, would contribute to lower prices or improved quality of care by providing valuable information to consumers.