Annual Reports
HCCI’s Health Care Cost and Utilization Reports

Yearly reviews of spending, price and utilization trends for commercially-insured Americans. Learn more about our methodology, definitions, and other resources.

Dec
14

On Average, ESI Pays Nearly 3 times Medicare for Hospital Outpatient Services

Health care spending continues to grow, and prices are the primary driver. Without addressing high and growing prices, efforts to make care more affordable will not be successful. One way to understand what is going on with prices in employer-sponsored insurance (ESI) is to compare negotiated rates paid in that market to Medicare payments for the same services. New analysis from the Heal...

Continue reading
Nov
13

Antidepressant Medication Use Increased Post-Pandemic, but Large Disparities Exist across Nearly Every Demographic Measure

The World Health Organization reported that, following the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a 25% increase in the prevalence of anxiety and depression worldwide. Mental health crises following months and years of social isolation and other effects of the pandemic have renewed national interest in mental health care access. Understanding how mental health services, including medications used to treat m...

Continue reading
Oct
30

Telehealth use increased dramatically from 2019-2021, but varied by state, age, and area-level social determinants of health

Building on existing work on telehealth use early in the COVID-19 pandemic among people who get health insurance through work, HCCI examined the use of telehealth services by year through 2021. We examined patterns of telehealth use by modality (synchronous or asynchronous) and state, as well as select measures of area (zip or county)-level social determinants of health as reported in AHRQ's Socia...

Continue reading
Oct
26

Emergency Room Spending, Price, and Use Trends 2012-2021

The emergency room (ER) is a critical and life-saving source of care for many Americans, but the resulting medical bills that patients receive can be a source of confusion and extreme financial burden. From incredibly high, varying prices to surprise bills resulting from in/out of network confusion, many Americans have no idea what to expect when it comes to the cost of ER services. Poli...

Continue reading
Oct
12

Ambulance Trends over 10 Years (2012-2021)

Ambulance services play an essential, life-saving role in the health care system but can also be a source of surprise bills to patients and unexpected high out-of-pocket costs. This HCCI data brief and downloadable data explores the 10-year trends in ambulance prices, utilization, spending, and the frequency of out-of-network billing for the commercially insured - people who get their health ...

Continue reading