Transparency
-
Healthcare Dive: CMS Audits Small Slice of Hospitals for Price Transparency, Probes Complaints
Read more: Healthcare Dive: CMS Audits Small Slice of Hospitals for Price Transparency, Probes ComplaintsHCCI’s President and CEO Niall Brennan was featured in a an article on CMS’s price transparency rule. From the article: “It’s ‘frustratingly incomplete,’ said Niall Brennan, president and CEO of the Health Care Cost Institute, which compiles claims data from big payers including Aetna and Kaiser Permanente. ‘There is no real mechanism to figure out how…
-
Forbes: Price Transparency: A Gift To Americans In The New Year
Tags: TransparencyRead more: Forbes: Price Transparency: A Gift To Americans In The New YearHCCI’s research on shoppable services and the prices of vaginal and Cesarean births were featured in a Forbes article on a new CMS price transparency rule. From the article: “New parents in the San Francisco area can expect to pay anywhere from around $11,000 to over $23,000 for a vaginal birth and between roughly $15,000…
-
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…
-
Analysis of Electronic Medical Record Data Shows Significantly Higher Rates of COVID-19 Infection among Hispanic and Black Patients
Read more: Analysis of Electronic Medical Record Data Shows Significantly Higher Rates of COVID-19 Infection among Hispanic and Black PatientsThe COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a previously unimaginable impact both in the United States and globally. It is increasingly clear as we enter the fifth month of the pandemic, with rising caseloads and deaths, that the United States will need to continue to address the COVID-19 pandemic for the foreseeable future. Each day, we learn…
-
Research Collaborative Releases Major New Collection of North Carolina Health Care Spending Data
Read more: Research Collaborative Releases Major New Collection of North Carolina Health Care Spending DataHCCI, Duke, and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina release interactive data on state health care spending to inform the public and policymakers. DURHAM, NC – Researchers at The Health Care Cost Institute, Duke-Margolis Center for Health Policy, Duke University School of Medicine Department of Population Health Sciences, and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina (Blue Cross…
-
An Inflection Point for HCCI: Upcoming Releases, New COVID-19 Projects & Expanded Dataset
Read more: An Inflection Point for HCCI: Upcoming Releases, New COVID-19 Projects & Expanded DatasetIt’s been a while since my last broad-based update on HCCI’s work. With so much going on in the world, I want to bring you up to speed on the many activities underway at HCCI, including our response to the COVID-19 pandemic and our transition to a new dataset that will incorporate claims from Aetna,…
-
The Washington Post: The Health 202: Health-care costs might decline if hospitals are forced by the Trump administration to disclose their prices
Read more: The Washington Post: The Health 202: Health-care costs might decline if hospitals are forced by the Trump administration to disclose their pricesHCCI research on the potential effects of price transparency on price variation was cited in a recent Washington Post article. “There is more wiggle room on the high side — it could make up for price increases on the lower side,” said Kevin Kennedy, one of the study researchers. The Health 202: Health-care costs might decline…
-
HCCI Provides Comments for CMS’s Proposed Transparency in Coverage Rule
Read more: HCCI Provides Comments for CMS’s Proposed Transparency in Coverage RuleOn November 27, 2019 CMS proposed a rule (CMS-9915-P) requiring group health plans and health insurance issuers in the individual and group markets to disclose cost-sharing information to enrollees, including an estimates of an enrollee’s cost-sharing liability for covered items or services furnished by a particular provider. As also noted in our comments on rule CMS-1717-P, HCCI recommends that…
-
What if Price Transparency Reduced Commercial Price Variation?
Read more: What if Price Transparency Reduced Commercial Price Variation?As previous reports have indicated, there is widespread price variation in the U.S. commercial health care system. Many studies have shown that prices are dramatically different not only across geographies, but they vary substantially even within the same market for the same service. For example, we found that prices for the same blood tests could…
-
Health Affairs: Stop Blaming The Victim: The Case For Systemic Health System Transparency
Read more: Health Affairs: Stop Blaming The Victim: The Case For Systemic Health System TransparencyIn HCCI’s publication in Health Affairs Blog, we examine the case for systemic health system transparency and directing changes towards key stakeholders. From the article: “Health care costs strain the budgets of families, businesses, and governments, leaving less room for other spending and forcing painful tradeoffs. In 2017, the United States spent $3.5 trillion on health…