Geographic Variation
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Workers in low income counties more likely to be long-term opioid users
Read more: Workers in low income counties more likely to be long-term opioid usersPast literature has found links between higher opioid use and local economic conditions for people enrolled in public health programs, but there has been little discussion of whether this relationship occurs among the privately insured. Using HCCI claims data and county level income data from the US Census Bureau, we examined how a county’s median…
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Health Affairs: Understanding Health Spending – Lessons From The Healthy Marketplace Index
Read more: Health Affairs: Understanding Health Spending – Lessons From The Healthy Marketplace IndexHEALTH AFFAIRS BLOG: “As policymakers consider actions to address challenges with the Affordable Care Act and ongoing growth in health spending, the importance of understanding local health care market dynamics is more important than ever. Traditionally, policy makers and other stakeholders have evaluated commercial health care markets’ total spending and often attributed high spending to…
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Price of insulin prescription doubled between 2012 and 2016
Read more: Price of insulin prescription doubled between 2012 and 2016In honor of National Diabetes Month, our inaugural blog post focuses on a topic of particular interest to people with diabetes: the price of insulin. Insulin is the hormone responsible for the body’s ability to use sugar and prevent dangerously high and potentially deadly levels of blood sugar. Diabetics are unable to make enough insulin…
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Trends in Total and Out-of-Pocket Spending in Metro Areas: 2012-2015
Read more: Trends in Total and Out-of-Pocket Spending in Metro Areas: 2012-2015This data brief examines geographic variation in health care per capita spending, with a focus on consumer per capita out-of-pocket spending across geographies (2012-2015). It also explores whether the proportion of people enrolled in consumer-directed health plans (CDHPs) and the proportion not utilizing health care services had any influence on out-of-pocket spending.
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Becker’s Hospital Review: 20 key takeaways on medical service prices – inpatient, outpatient, and physician services
Read more: Becker’s Hospital Review: 20 key takeaways on medical service prices – inpatient, outpatient, and physician servicesBy: Laura Dyrda The Health Care Cost Institute issued the “Healthy Marketplace Index: Medical Service Category Price Index” report for 2017 in April. The report calculates metrics comparing aspects of price, competition and productivity of healthcare markets over time, which shows trends for potential future research. The report includes data for inpatient, outpatient and physician…
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Modern Healthcare: Healthcare costs vary widely by region
Read more: Modern Healthcare: Healthcare costs vary widely by regionBy: Maria Castellucci The best solutions to decrease the high costs of healthcare services may not be solved at the federal level but in states and their communities, a new study suggests. The report, published by researchers this week at the Health Care Cost Institute, found costs of services vary dramatically depending on a patient’s…
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NBC News: U.S. Health Care Prices Are All Over the Map, New Study Finds
Read more: NBC News: U.S. Health Care Prices Are All Over the Map, New Study FindsBy: Maggie Fox Why does a knee replacement cost $29,000 in Kansas but $40,000 in next-door Colorado? Health care prices are all over the map in the U.S., a new study finds. It digs deeply into the crazy pattern of health costs across the U.S. and shows there is very little consistency. The report from the…
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Congressional Budget Office Working Paper Series: An Analysis of Private-Sector Prices for Hospital Admissions
Tags: CBO, Commercially Insured, Geographic Variation, Inpatient Spending, Medicare, Medicare Advantage, Outpatient Spending
Read more: Congressional Budget Office Working Paper Series: An Analysis of Private-Sector Prices for Hospital AdmissionsABSTRACT: Prices for hospital admissions have received considerable attention in recent years, both because they are an important component of health care spending and because they can vary widely. In this paper, we use 2013 claims data from three large insurers to examine the hospital payment rates of those insurers in their commercial plans and…
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NBER Working Paper: Healthcare Spending and Utilization in Public and Private Medicare
Tags: Geographic Variation, Medicare, Medicare Advantage, NBER, Peer Reviewed Journals, Value Based Care
Read more: NBER Working Paper: Healthcare Spending and Utilization in Public and Private MedicareABSTRACT: We compare healthcare spending in public and private Medicare using newly available claims data from Medicare Advantage (MA) insurers. MA insurer revenues are 30 percent higher than their healthcare spending. Healthcare spending is 25 percent lower for MA enrollees than for enrollees in traditional Medicare (TM) in the same county with the same risk…
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NBER: Why Don’t Commercial Health Plans Use Prospective Payment?
Tags: Commercially Insured, Geographic Variation, Inpatient Spending, Market Concentration, NBER, Peer Reviewed JournalsRead more: NBER: Why Don’t Commercial Health Plans Use Prospective Payment?ABSTRACT One of the key terms in contracts between hospitals and insurers is how the parties apportion the financial risk of treating unexpectedly costly patients. “Prospective” payment contracts give hospitals a lump-sum amount, depending on the medical condition of the patient, with limited adjustment for the level of services provided. We use data from the…