All HCCI Reports
HCCI’s original reports powered by #HCCIdata

Sep
30

NPR: The Bill For His COVID Test In Texas Was A Whopping $54,000

HCCI's President and CEO Niall Brennan was quoted in an NPR report on a shockingly high bill for a COVID-19 test. From the article: ' "People are going to charge what they think they can get away with," says Niall Brennan, president and CEO of the Health Care Cost Institute, a nonprofit that studies health care prices. "Even a perfectly well-intentioned provision like this can be hijacke...

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Jul
23

Crain's New York Business: Hospitals call for clarity as feds mull higher fines for flouting price-transparency rules

HCCI research Kevin Kennedy was quoted in a Crain's New York Business story on hospital price transparency rules.   From the article: "It was pretty clear that the $300 a day wasn't going to be that much of an incentive for hospitals to comply when you're talking about multi-million- or -billion-dollar businesses," said Kevin Kennedy, a researcher at the Health Care Cost Institute, ...

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Jul
20

USA Today: Fact check: False claim that COVID-19 vaccine isn't effective because you're not charged for it

HCCI's research on insulin prices was featured in a USA Today article on COVID-19 vaccine misinformation.  From the article: "Insulin prices nearly doubled in the U.S from 2012 to 2016, a 2019 report by the nonprofit Health Care Cost Institute found." Fact check: False claim links COVID-19 vaccine's price, effectiveness Even though almost all COVID-19 deaths are occurring among unvaccinated p...

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Jul
09

News Nation USA: Effort to Decipher Hospital Prices Yields Key Finding: Don't Try It at Home

HCCI's created a list of most common outpatient procedures used in an article on the difficulty of using hospital price transparency data.  Effort to Decipher Hospital Prices Yields Key Finding: Don’t Try It at Home - News Nation USA A federal price transparency rule that took effect this year was supposed to give patients, employers and insurers a clearer picture of the true cost of https://...

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Jun
29

USA Today: Walmart launching its own low-cost insulin to 'revolutionize' affordability for diabetics

HCCI's research on insulin prices was featured in USA Today. From the article: "The lower-cost insulin is being released by Walmart in response to surging costs for the treatment used for patients with diabetes. According to the Health Care Cost Institute, a non-profit organization which sheds light on health care spending, the average price for an insulin prescription nearly doubled from 2012 ($3...

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Jun
29

CNBC: Walmart unveils low-price insulin as more patients with diabetes struggle to pay for drug

HCCI's research on the price of insulin was featured in CNBC.  From the article: "As the number of people with diabetes climbs, the cost of the 100-year-old drug has soared rather than fallen and drawn scrutiny from lawmakers. The annual cost of insulin for people with Type 1 diabetes in the U.S. nearly doubled from $2,900 in 2012 to $5,700 in 2016, according to the most recent data available...

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Jun
17

Winners of COVID-19 Research Accelerator Grants Announced

SAN FRANCISCO and WASHINGTON, June 17, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Today, the COVID-19 Research Consortium, the Health Care Cost Institute, and Datavant announced 15 winners of the first Research Accelerator grants, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The grant program's mission is to ensure that researchers have the resources they need to leverage the COVID-19 Research Database to stu...

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Jun
08

Our American States Podcast: Price Transparency in Health Care

HCCI's President and CEO Niall Brennan was featured in an episode of a podcast produced by the National Conference of State Legislatures. From the podcast description: "The guest on the podcast is an expert in the area of health data and analytics. Niall Brennan is the president and CEO of the Health Care Cost Institute, a nonprofit that focuses on data to analyze key issues affecting th...

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Jun
01

Real Clear Health: Real Healthcare Prices Remain Elusive

HCCI's research into recent HHS hospital price transparency regulations was featured in Real Clear Health.  From the article: "Our findings demonstrating widespread noncompliance align with those in recent studies published by Health Affairs, The Health Care Cost Institute, and the Kaiser Family Foundation." Real Healthcare Prices Remain Elusive | RealClearHealth A slew of recent healthc...

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May
21

Washington Monthly: The Hospital Industry’s No Good, Very Bad Day

HCCI's Healthy Marketplace Index report was cited in Washington Monthly's article on congressional hearings related to hospital consolidation.  From the article: "While the legislation Klobuchar and others are championing may well slow the pace of future merger activity, it won't do much to unwind the already deep and damaging level of concentration in the health care sector. Indeed, nearly 7...

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May
14

Modern Healthcare: Meet the new dominant player in one hot healthcare market

HCCI's HMI Concentration Index was cited in Modern Healthcare's article on Atlanta's health care market.  From the article: "The Health Care Cost Institute ranked Atlanta as one of the most competitive markets in the country, coming in as the 108th least concentrated out of 124 U.S. markets." Piedmont Healthcare grabs market share in back-to-back hospital deals A string of recent hospital dea...

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May
05

COVID Research Accelerator Launched: 1M dollars for research teams leveraging the COVID-19 Research Database

The COVID-19 Research Database Consortium announces new funding opportunity for research teams leveraging Real World Data available to inform medical interventions and targeted mitigation policies. [San Francisco, California] May 4, 2021 – Datavant, the Health Care Cost Institute (HCCI), and the COVID-19 Research Database Consortium announced the launch of a grant program today, in collaboration w...

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Apr
12

Reader's Digest: A Blood Test in This State Will Run You 25 Times More Than in Other States

HCCI's 2019 Past the Price Index report was featured in Reader's Digest. From the article:  "'Generally, Texas had some of the highest blood test median prices in the country, with 5 of the 12 highest prices studied,' the HCCI authors wrote. For instance, a blood test in Beaumont costs 25 times more than a blood test in Toledo, Ohio." A Blood Test in This State Will Run You 25 Times...

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Mar
29

GAO Press Release: GAO Makes Appointments to the State All Payer Claims Databases Advisory Committee

HCCI's President and CEO Niall Brennan was chosen to participate in the Government Accountability Office's State All Payer Claims Databases Advisory Committee. In this role, he will help to craft recommendations to the Secretary of Labor on the standardized format and associated guidance for the voluntary reporting by group health plans to State All Payer Claims Databases. From the ...

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Mar
23

NPR: The COVID Relief Bill Expands the Affordable Care Act. It Doesn't Come Cheap

HCCI's research on commercial insurance payments to providers was mentioned in an NPR article on recent expansions to the Affordable Care Act. From the article: "For example, health insurers in the Atlanta area pay primary care physicians $93 on average for a basic patient visit, according to an analysis of 2017 commercial insurance data by the Health Care Cost Institute, a research nonprofit." Th...

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Mar
03

USA Today: A National System to Prioritize COVID-19 Vaccines has Largely Failed as States Rely on Their Own Systems

HCCI's President and CEO Niall Brennan was quoted in a USA Today article on failures of the federal COVID-19 vaccination system. From the article: "'They literally thought their job stopped with vaccine development,' said Niall Brennan, CEO of the Health Care Cost Institute and former chief data officer for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. 'No, your job stops when the...

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Feb
11

Wall Street Journal: How Much Does a C-Section Cost? At One Hospital, Anywhere From $6,241 to $60,584.

HCCI's President and CEO Niall Brennan was featured in a Wall Street Journal Article on hospital price transparency disclosures at Sutter Health.  From the article: "'It is shining a light on the insanity of U.S. healthcare pricing,' said Niall Brennan, chief executive of the Health Care Cost Institute, a nonprofit that analyzes medical costs. 'It's at the center of the affordability cri...

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Feb
02

HCCI Launches New, Expanded Dataset

New dataset is 25% larger than original HCCI dataset, containing health insurance claims for 55 million people, one third of people with employer-based health insurance in the United States WASHINGTON, DC (February 2, 2021) — The Health Care Cost Institute (HCCI) today announced the launch of its new health care claims dataset for research. The new dataset is more than 25% larger than the original...

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Jan
19

Modern Healthcare: A Peek Behind the Curtain on Hospital Prices

HCCI's research on the prices private insurers pay versus Medicare was featured in Modern Healthcare on the recent CMS price transparency rule.  From the article: "That bright light illuminates hospitals' most lucrative revenue streams. Private insurers pay an estimated 51 percent to 200 percent more than the federal Medicare program, according to a recent Health Care Cost Institute...

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Jan
11

Modern Healthcare: Hospitals Slow to Disclose Their Payer-Negotiated Rates

HCCI's President and CEO Niall Brennan was featured in a Modern Healthcare article on hospital compliance with CMS's price transparency rule.  From the article: " 'Hospitals have opposed this from the get-go. I don't think they should be facing implementation challenges,' Health Care Cost Institute CEO Niall Brennan said. 'These are large, multimillion, and, in many cases, multibillion-dollar...

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Jan
11

Healthcare Dive: CMS Audits Small Slice of Hospitals for Price Transparency, Probes Complaints

HCCI'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 many hospitals complied with the r...

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Jan
04

Modern Healthcare: Amazon, JPMorgan Chase, Berkshire Hathaway disband Haven

HCCI's 2018 Health Care Cost and Utilization Report (HCCUR) was featured in Modern Healthcare.  From the article: "Per capita health spending for the 160 million Americans in employer-sponsored health plans grew by 4.4% in 2018, the third consecutive year of increases above 4%, according to the latest annual spending report by the Health Care Cost Institute." Amazon, JPMorgan Chase, Berkshire...

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Jan
04

Forbes: Price Transparency: A Gift To Americans In The New Year

HCCI'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 and $40,000 for a Cesarean section, according to research from the Health Ca...

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Nov
28

Modern Healthcare: Targeting High-Risk Cancer Patients with Genetics

HCCI's research on utilization of preventive care services during the coronavirus pandemic was featured in Modern Healthcare.  From the article: "A Health Care Cost Institute analysis of data from various payers found mammograms were down 24% and colonoscopies were down 33% as of August." Targeting high-risk cancer patients with genetics As cancer screening rates have dwindled amid the COVID-...

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Nov
19

Kaiser Health News: Surprise Federal Drug Rule Directs Insurers to Reveal What They Pay for Prescription Drugs

HCCI's President and CEO Niall Brennan was quoted in a Kaiser Health News article on the CMS Transparency in Coverage Final Rule.  From the article:  " 'If the information is presented to consumers so they realize they are paying a higher price without the benefit of the rebates, you'll get a lot of angry consumers,' said Niall Brennan, CEO of the Health Care Cost Ins...

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