Publications
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When the Medicare Rate Isn’t the Medicare Rate: Analyzing Differences Between the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule and Payments Received by Physicians.
Read more: When the Medicare Rate Isn’t the Medicare Rate: Analyzing Differences Between the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule and Payments Received by Physicians.Increasingly, policymakers are considering proposals that tie payments made by private health insurers, in some way, to rates paid by Medicare. These proposals are inspired by the rising cost of health care and widespread variation in health care prices. For example, we recently found that the cost of the same service can vary by 5-fold,…
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American Economic Review: Screening and Selection: The Case of Mammograms
Tags: MammogramsRead more: American Economic Review: Screening and Selection: The Case of MammogramsAbstract: We analyze selection into screening in the context of recommendations that breast cancer screening start at age 40. Combining medical claims with a clinical oncology model, we document that compliers with the recommendation are less likely to have cancer than younger women who select into screening or women who never screen. We show this…
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How Differences Between Commercial, Medicare Professional Service Prices Could Result in Different Policy Impacts
Read more: How Differences Between Commercial, Medicare Professional Service Prices Could Result in Different Policy ImpactsIntroduction As rising health care costs force difficult choices for families, employers, and federal, state, and local governments, a range of policy proposals are emerging to address health care spending in the U.S. In this presidential election year, there has been heightened attention on lowering health care costs and making care more affordable, which will…
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Past the Healthy Marketplace Index, Volume II: Exploring Changes in Actual Prices Paid for Specific Services by Metro Area from 2013 to 2017
Read more: Past the Healthy Marketplace Index, Volume II: Exploring Changes in Actual Prices Paid for Specific Services by Metro Area from 2013 to 2017In the first brief of the Past the Healthy Marketplace Index series, we explored how prices compared across the country and found that, in 2017, health care prices for specific services varied by as much as 22-fold across metro areas and even up 40-fold within them. In this next brief, we looked at variation in…
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Past the Healthy Marketplace Index, Volume I: Exploring Actual Prices Paid for Specific Services by Metro Area
Read more: Past the Healthy Marketplace Index, Volume I: Exploring Actual Prices Paid for Specific Services by Metro AreaHow much people spend on health care from place to place reflects multiple, interwoven, and dynamic factors, such as the cost and use of services. Health care spending and its driving factors change over time, differ across geographies, and vary by type of service. The Health Care Cost Institute’s (HCCI) Healthy Marketplace Index (HMI) provides…
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Electronic Medical Record Data Suggest Disparities in COVID Incidence Persist Across Regions and Over Time
Tags: COVID-19Read more: Electronic Medical Record Data Suggest Disparities in COVID Incidence Persist Across Regions and Over TimeSince the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, a growing body of research has found alarming disparities in rates of the virus among Black and Hispanic communities. For example, the CDC reports that “American Indian or Alaska Native, Non-Hispanic” people and “Hispanic or Latino” people each have 2.8 times as many COVID cases than white people,…
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The Impact of COVID-19 on Years of Life Lost
Read more: The Impact of COVID-19 on Years of Life LostSummary: Since April, 1.9 million excess years of life have been lost, 13% above historical average. Over the course of the pandemic, we found age and sex contributions to excess YLL have shifted. Deaths among adults 65 and older accounted for 80% of excess YLL in April but only 36% of excess YLL in June. Since…
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American Journal of Managed Care: Policies to Address Surprise Billing Can Affect Health Insurance Premiums
Read more: American Journal of Managed Care: Policies to Address Surprise Billing Can Affect Health Insurance PremiumsAbstract: Objectives: To quantify the proportion of health plan spending on services for which surprise billing is common—provided by radiologists, anesthesiologists, pathologists, emergency physicians, emergency ground ambulances, and emergency outpatient facilities—and estimate the potential impact of proposed policies to address surprise billing on health insurance premiums. Study Design: Analysis of 2017 commercial claims data from…
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Comparing Commercial and Medicare Professional Service Prices
Read more: Comparing Commercial and Medicare Professional Service PricesPeople in the United States routinely cite health care and health care costs as top concerns.1,2,3,4 For the more than 160 million people who get insurance from their employer, the cost of health care is high, growing, and outpacing growth in wages.5,6,7 Across the country, health care costs show up in the form of higher premiums and…
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Commercial Prices Relative to Medicare Vary Within Metro Areas Across Specialties and by Type of Service
Read more: Commercial Prices Relative to Medicare Vary Within Metro Areas Across Specialties and by Type of ServiceEarlier HCCI research found that at the national level, commercial payers paid prices that were, on average, 122% of Medicare. However, we found that commercial professional service prices varied dramatically across states from 98% of Medicare in Alabama to 188% of Medicare in Wisconsin. There was similar variation within states, such as California, and also…