News
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Wall Street Journal: Behind Your Rising Health-Care Bills: Secret Hospital Deals that Squelch Competition
Read more: Wall Street Journal: Behind Your Rising Health-Care Bills: Secret Hospital Deals that Squelch CompetitionHCCI data was featured in The Wall Street Journal showing that insurers pay higher prices for some services performed on an outpatient basis that could also be performed in doctors offices.
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The Wall Street Journal: Behind Your Rising Health-Care Bills: Secret Hospital Deals That Squelch Competition
Read more: The Wall Street Journal: Behind Your Rising Health-Care Bills: Secret Hospital Deals That Squelch Competition“Last year, Cigna Corp. and the New York hospital system Northwell Health discussed developing an insurance plan that would offer low-cost coverage by excluding some other health-care providers, according to people with knowledge of the matter. It never happened. The problem was a separate contract between Cigna and NewYork-Presbyterian, the powerful hospital operator that is…
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Vox: The absurdity of American health care pricing, in one chart
Read more: Vox: The absurdity of American health care pricing, in one chartResearch using HCCI data shows the different prices patients face for the same procedures performed in the same hospitals. “a new paper from economists Zack Cooper, Stuart Craig, Martin Gaynor, and John Van Reenen sheds light on another fascinating type of variation: price differences within a single hospital. Their research is the first I’ve seen that…
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POLITICO: Insurers spark blowback by reducing emergency room coverage
Read more: POLITICO: Insurers spark blowback by reducing emergency room coverageHCCI’s emergency room analysis has been highlighted by Politico! “Emergency room spending essentially doubled between 2009 and 2016, even though the number of patients treated remained flat, according to an analysis of insurer claims data recently published by the Health Care Cost Institute. The growth is being driven entirely by the most expensive claims. Costs…
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The Opacity of Transparency: The Search for a Cure to Our Health Care Woes
Tags: TransparencyRead more: The Opacity of Transparency: The Search for a Cure to Our Health Care WoesBy: Niall Brennan Health care spending is exceedingly difficult to control for our nation, the states, and private payers, but also for individual patients and providers. While there has been some moderation in spending in recent years in programs like Medicare, the health share of gross domestic product (GDP) is projected to continue to rise…
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Health Leaders: ER Spending Rise Driven by high-severity cases
Read more: Health Leaders: ER Spending Rise Driven by high-severity casesBy: John Commins A review of emergency department claims for employer-sponsored plans from 2009 through 2016 found that the average prices for higher severity billing codes rose faster than lower severity codes. Emergency department spending per employer-sponsored plan enrollee increased 99% from 2009 to 2016, even as overall ED use for that cohort flat-lined, the…
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Becker’s Hospital Review: Rising ER prices, more high severity cases spurred greater healthcare spending – 7 takeaways
Tags: Emergency RoomRead more: Becker’s Hospital Review: Rising ER prices, more high severity cases spurred greater healthcare spending – 7 takeawaysBy: Kelly Gooch Among the commercially insured, national emergency room use remained unchanged from 2009 to 2016, but ER price hikes and greater use of high-severity codes resulted in more ER spending, according to updated data from the Health Care Cost Institute. The data on ER spending, price and utilization reflects five facility fee current procedural…
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Modern Healthcare: ER spending rises with increasing prices, severity of visits
Read more: Modern Healthcare: ER spending rises with increasing prices, severity of visitsBy: Shelby Livingston Even though emergency department use has stayed the same, ED spending per member nearly doubled from 2009 to 2016 as the severity of ED visits and the prices associated with those visits increased, new data from the Health Care Cost Institute shows. The not-for-profit HCCI analyzed employer-sponsored insurance claims for the five procedure…
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Health Payer Intelligence: Pros and Cons of High Cost Sharing for Employer Health Plans
Tags: Commercially InsuredRead more: Health Payer Intelligence: Pros and Cons of High Cost Sharing for Employer Health PlansBy Thomas Beaton Employer-sponsored health plans that include high cost sharing expectations can help control spending for plan sponsors, but could create longer-term health risks for employee beneficiaries. Striking the right balance between lowering costs and enabling healthy decision-making can be a challenge for employers and payers looking to design cost-effective plans. How can plan…
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Becker’s Hospital Review: Hospital pricing for privately insured varies by market structure – 6 study findings
Read more: Becker’s Hospital Review: Hospital pricing for privately insured varies by market structure – 6 study findingsBy: Kelly Gooch A newly revised study reveals insights into monopoly pricing, finding hospital market structure is strongly linked with pricing and insurer contract structure. For the study, researchers primarily examined private insurance claims data from Aetna, Humana and UnitedHealth. The data, provided by the Health Care Cost Institute, covers healthcare received by 28 percent…