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

Sep
17

Bloomberg: Big Hospitals Are Getting Bigger, Pushing U.S. Prices Higher

HCCI's Hospital Concentration Index was featured in a report in Bloomberg.  From the article:  "The report relied on a measure commonly used in antitrust analysis that gauges how concentrated a market is based on the market share of competitors. It measured only the market for inpatient admissions, so it doesn't reflect other services such as outpatient clinic visits or imaging. By ...

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Aug
26

LA Times: Trying to Shop for Medical Care? Lots of Luck with That

HCCI research on shoppable services was mentioned in an article written by the LA Times. From the article: "By one estimate by the Health Care Cost Institute, just 7% of total healthcare spending for Americans with job-based coverage was on medical services that could be considered 'shoppable' because the service required an out-of-pocket payment and the procedure could be researche...

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Aug
12

Health Affairs: Surprise Billing: Choose Patients Over Profit

 HCCI's research on median in-network rates was recently featured in a Health Affairs blog post on surprise billing. From the blog: "Most importantly, Congress should establish a locally based benchmark to determine the amount an insurer would be required to pay a provider for a surprise bill. Ideally, we'd set the benchmark at some multiple (for example 125 percent) of what Medicare pays to ...

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Aug
02

CNBC: Eli Lilly Confirms Probe by New York's Attorney General over Insulin Prices

HCCI's research on insulin prices was mentioned in a CNBC report. From the article: "The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates more than 30 million Americans have diabetes. The annual cost of insulin for people with Type 1 diabetes in the U.S. nearly doubled from 2012 to 2016 to $5,700 from $2,900, according to an analysis by the nonprofit Health Care Cost Institute. Eli L...

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Aug
01

NPR: $2,733 To Treat Iron-Poor Blood? Iron Infusions For Anemia Under Scrutiny

HCCI recently provided cost information  for iron infusions for an NPR article. From the article: "An analysis of private insurance claims conducted by the Health Care Cost Institute, an independent research group funded by insurers, found that in 2017, private health plans paid $4,316 per visit, on average, if a patient received Injectafer infusions. Feraheme, the next most expensive in...

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Jul
30

The Wall Street Journal: Health-Care Spending Soars in New York State

HCCI's report with the New York State Health Foundation on health care spending in New York was recently featured in a Wall Street Journal article. From the article:  "Health-care spending on New Yorkers who get insurance through work is higher and rising more sharply than the national average. The main reason, according to a new report, is price growth. Rising prices of doctor visits, i...

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Jun
29

The Economist: Will Transparent Pricing Make America's Health Care Cheaper

 HCCI's Healthy Marketplace Index research on prices for specific services was recently featured in an article in the Economist  Will transparent pricing make America’s health care cheaper? - Never a bargain https://www.economist.com/united-states/2019/06/29/will-transparent-pricing-make-americas-health-care-cheaper

Jun
06

Los Angeles Times: Soaring Insurance Deductibles and High Drug Prices Hit Sick Americans with a 'Double Whammy'

HCCI's research on consumer-directed health plans was recently used to support the second in a series of articles by the Los Angeles Times on high-deductible health plans. From the article:  "New research conducted in partnership with The Times for this project also shows that sick Americans use less healthcare when their plan requires them to pay more out of pocket. Analyzing data from ...

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Jun
04

USA Today: 'Really astonishing': Average cost of hospital ER visit surges 176% in a decade, report says

​HCCI research presented at this year's AcademyHealth Annual Research Meeting on emergency room spending was recently featured in a story in USA today.  From the article:  "Hospital emergency rooms are more likely to charge pricier levels of care than a decade ago, generating bigger bills that consumers increasingly must pay with their own money, according to a new report. The nonprofit ...

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May
31

HCCI will be presenting at AcademyHealth's 2019 Annual Research Meeting

The Health Care Cost Institute (HCCI) is proud to present five posters at the AcademyHealth 2019 Annual Research Meeting in Washington, D.C. These posters, which cover HCCI research on a wide variety of topics, focus on health care spending and utilization trends among the commercially insured population. If you are attending the conference, please check out the schedule below to meet our staff an...

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May
02

Los Angeles Times: Health Insurance Deductibles Soar, Leaving Americans with Unaffordable Bills

HCCI's research on consumer-directed health plans was recently used to support the first in a series of articles by the Los Angeles Times on high-deductible health plans.  From the article:  "The challenges are most severe for people with the highest deductibles, according to the poll: Nearly half of those in a plan with at least a $3,000 individual deductible or a $5,000 family deductib...

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Apr
30

The New York Times: They Want It to Be Secret: How a Common Blood Test Can Cost $11 or Almost $1,000

​HCCI's recent research on variation of prices of specific services was recently featured in an article in The Upshot by The New York Times. From the article: "It's one of the most common tests in medicine, and it is performed millions of times a year around the country. Should a metabolic blood panel test cost $11 or $952? Both of these are real, negotiated prices, paid by health insura...

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Apr
18

New York Post: Man Shows Shocking Health Care Cost of His Attempted Suicide

HCCI's research on  ER facility prices was cited by the New York Post in a recent article. From the article: "While Jordan's case is extreme, the typical tab for an emergency room visit is still hard to fathom. The average visit costs $1,917, according to the Health Care Cost Institute, which looked at data from 2016. A different study from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public H...

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Apr
17

CBS Evening News: Family Hit With $3,700 Bill For Out-Of-Network Anesthesiologist

HCCI's research on out-of-network billing was recently cited by a CBS Evening News report on the topic. Family hit with $3,700 bill for out-of-network anesthesiologist - CBS News When Adam and Laura Parkinson chose their hospital and obstetrician for the birth of their son, they didn't think they would get hit with a surprise bill for the epidural https://www.cbsnews.com/news/out-of-netwo...

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Apr
03

The New York Times: Express Scripts Offers Diabetes Patients a $25 Cap for Monthly Insulin

HCCI's research on rising insulin list prices was recently cited by The New York Times in its reporting on Express Scripts' new plan to offer a $25 cap for month insulin. From the article: "Consumers whose drug benefits are managed by Express Scripts could see their out-of-pocket costs for insulin limited to $25 a month under a plan announced on Wednesday. The move is aimed at addressing rising an...

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Mar
01

HCCI Responds to Chairman Alexander's Request for Recommendations to Address Rising Health Care Costs

HCCI was recently requested to respond to a request from Senate HELP Committee Chairman, Senator Lamar Alexander, for recommendations to address America's rising health care costs. HCCI recommends establishing a comprehensive multi-payer source of health claims data which could then be used to evaluate the performance of the health care system and future policy proposals.   Download PDF File ...

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Feb
19

2017 Annual Health Care Cost and Utilization Report Webinar

Watch the Webinar HCCI recently held a webinar to discuss the 2017 Annual Health Care Cost and Utilization Report.    Download PDF File Here

Feb
12

HCCI Releases 2017 Health Care Cost and Utilization Report

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...

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Feb
05

HCCI Research Used in Support of Congressional Inquiries

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...

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Jan
30

HCCI Announces End of Data Sharing Agreement with United Healthcare

HCCI will continue to analyze spending trends; Researchers will have HCCI data access until the end of 2022 The Health Care Cost Institute and United Healthcare are sunsetting their data collaboration relationship agreement, that has provided United's deidentified insurance claims data for analyses of U.S. healthcare spending, utilization, and market performance. HCCI continues to receive data fro...

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Jan
28

HCCI Insulin Report Receives Extensive Media Coverage

 HCCI's recent report on trends in rising insulin prices received additional media coverage in the last week in outlets including NBC, CBS, CNN, The New York Times, The Hill, U.S. News & World Report, and USA Today.  From CNN: "Congress and the Trump administration continue to push for a drug pricing plan and were given more ammunition Tuesday in the form of a report documenting...

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Jan
22

Reuters: U.S. Insulin Costs Per Patient Nearly Doubled From 2012 to 2016: Study

​HCCI's latest research on rising insulin prices was recently featured in Reuters. HCCI's report detailed both use and price trends of insulin used by those with type 1 diabetes from 2012 to 2016. Per Reuters article: "A person with type 1 diabetes incurred annual insulin costs of $5,705, on average, in 2016. The average cost was roughly half that at $2,864 per patient in 2012, according to a...

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Jan
22

Vox: Prices at Zuckerberg Hospital’s Emergency Room are Higher Than Anywhere Else in San Francisco

HCCI's claims data was recently used to support investigations by Sarah Kliff into emergency room pricing in San Francisco. From Vox:   "Data from the non-profit Health Care Cost Institute shows that the average price at other San Francisco-area emergency rooms is $2,000 — less than half the city hospital's price. "A privately insured patient does not seem to be getting a very good ...

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Dec
27

The Wall Street Journal: The Hidden System That Explains How Your Doctor Makes Referrals

By: Anna Wilde Mathews and Melanie Evans  More primary-care doctors work directly for hospitals, and they are being pushed to keep lucrative referrals in-house.  Phoebe Putney Health System doesn't want its doctors to send business to competitors. If they do, Phoebe makes sure their bosses know about it. Doctors working for the Albany, Ga.-based hospital system's affiliated physician gro...

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Dec
14

Vox: The Medicare-for-all paradox

Passing single-payer means disrupting health insurance for 160 million people who get coverage through their jobs  ​HCCI Data was featured in Vox showing the annual growth in per capita health care spending.  By: Dylan Scott Jessica Salfia knew the pay wasn't going to be great when she became a teacher in Martinsburg, West Virginia, but she did have really good health coverage. She felt ...

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