Annual Reports
HCCI’s Health Care Cost and Utilization Reports

Per-Person Health Care Spending Grew 4.2% in 2017, Driven Mostly by Prices Outpatient services had highest spending growth in 2017, increasing 5.1% WASHINGTON (February 12, 2019) — Average annual health care spending for individuals with employer-sponsored insurance increased to an all-time high of $5,641 in 2017, despite little change in the utilization of services overall, according to the Healt...

The 2017 Health Care Cost and Utilization Report shows that spending per privately insured person grew by 4.2 percent, the second year in a row of spending growth over four percent. Price increases were the primary driver. The report covers the period 2013 through 2017 and includes claims data from four national insurance companies: Aetna, Humana, Kaiser Permanente, and UnitedH...

HCCI's recent report on rising insulin prices was cited in support of congressional  inquiries into drug pricing. This included a letter from U.S. Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA) to executives at Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk, and Sanofi requesting information on insulin pricing.  Additionally, HCCI's research on emergency care was cited in a letter from U.S. Senators Bill Cassidy (R-LA)&nb...

ABSTRACT We examined the growth in health spending on people with employer-sponsored private insurance in the period 2007–14. Our analysis relied on information from the Health Care Cost Institute data set, which includes insurance claims from Aetna, Humana, and UnitedHealthcare. In the study period private health spending per enrollee grew 16.9 percent, while growth in Medicare spending per fee-f...

​Abstract: In 2014, insurers paid an average of 13–14 percent less for in-network mental health services in their commercial and Medicare Advantage plans than fee-for-service Medicare paid for identical services—despite paying up to 12 percent more than Medicare when the same services were provided by other physician specialties. However, patients went out of network more frequently for mental hea...