Health Affairs
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Health Affairs: Insurer Market Power Lowers Prices In Numerous Concentrated Provider Markets
Tags: Health Affairs, Inpatient Spending, Market Concentration, Outpatient Spending, Peer Reviewed Journals
Read more: Health Affairs: Insurer Market Power Lowers Prices In Numerous Concentrated Provider MarketsABSTRACT: Using prices of hospital admissions and visits to five types of physicians, we analyzed how provider and insurer market concentration—as measured by the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (HHI)—interact and are correlated with prices. We found evidence that in the range of the Department of Justice’s and Federal Trade Commission’s definition of a moderately concentrated market (HHI of…
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Health Affairs: Medicare Competitive Bidding Program Realized Price Savings For Durable Medical Equipment Purchases
Read more: Health Affairs: Medicare Competitive Bidding Program Realized Price Savings For Durable Medical Equipment PurchasesABSTRACT: From the inception of the Medicare program there have been questions regarding whether and how to pay for durable medical equipment, prosthetics, orthotics, and supplies. In 2011 the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) implemented a competitive bidding program to reduce spending on durable medical equipment and similar items. Previously, CMS had used…
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Health Affairs: Reference Pricing Changes the ‘Choice Architecture’ of Health Care for Consumers
Read more: Health Affairs: Reference Pricing Changes the ‘Choice Architecture’ of Health Care for ConsumersABSTRACT: Reference pricing in health insurance creates incentives for patients to select for nonemergency services providers that charge relatively low prices and still offer high quality of care. It changes the “choice architecture” by offering standard coverage if the patient chooses cost-effective providers but requires considerable consumer cost sharing if more expensive alternatives are selected….
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Health Affairs: Medicare Advantage Plans Pay Hospitals Less Than Traditional Medicare Pays
Tags: Commercially Insured, Health Affairs, Inpatient Spending, Medicare, Medicare Advantage, Outpatient Spending, Peer Reviewed JournalsRead more: Health Affairs: Medicare Advantage Plans Pay Hospitals Less Than Traditional Medicare PaysABSTRACT There is ongoing debate about how prices paid to providers by Medicare Advantage plans compare to prices paid by fee-for-service Medicare. We used data from Medicare and the Health Care Cost Institute to identify the prices paid for hospital services by fee-for-service (FFS) Medicare, Medicare Advantage plans, and commercial insurers in 2009 and 2012….
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Health Affairs: Health Spending Slowdown Is Mostly Due To Economic Factors, Not Structural Change In The Health Care Sector
Tags: Affordable Care Act, Commercially Insured, Health Affairs, Market Concentration, Peer Reviewed JournalsRead more: Health Affairs: Health Spending Slowdown Is Mostly Due To Economic Factors, Not Structural Change In The Health Care SectorABSTRACT: The source of the recent slowdown in health spending growth remains unclear. We used new and unique data on privately insured people to estimate the effect of the economic slowdown that began in December 2007 on the rate of growth in health spending. By exploiting regional variations in the severity of the slowdown, we determined…
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Health Affairs: Trends Underlying Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance Growth For Americans Younger Than Age Sixty-Five
Read more: Health Affairs: Trends Underlying Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance Growth For Americans Younger Than Age Sixty-FiveABSTRACT Little is known about the trends in health care spending for the 156 million Americans who are younger than age sixty-five and enrolled in employer-sponsored health insurance. Using a new source of health insurance claims data, we estimated per capita spending, utilization, and prices for this population between 2007 and 2011. During this period…