All HCCI Reports
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State Variation in Opioid Prescribing over 10 Years
Read more: State Variation in Opioid Prescribing over 10 YearsChanges in opioid utilization correlated with state-level policy changes aimed at decreasing opioid prescription rates. Previous research by HCCI illustrated that national opioid utilization in pills per person fell 27% between the years of 2008 and 2017, driven by declines in the use of hydrocodone (Vicodin). In addition to giving insight into prescription opioid utilization…
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Comparing Commercial and Medicare Rates for Select Anesthesia, Emergency Room, and Radiology Services by State
Tags: Commercially Insured, Emergency Room, Medicare, Physician Spending, Prices, Spending, Surprise Billing
Read more: Comparing Commercial and Medicare Rates for Select Anesthesia, Emergency Room, and Radiology Services by StateCommittees in both the House and Senate have advanced legislation that includes measures to address “surprise bills.” A surprise bill results when a person unknowingly receives medical care from a provider that is not part of their insurer’s network. Both pieces of legislation set a benchmark for out-of-network payments. Those benchmarks are determined based on…
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Opioid Prescriptions Declined 32% for the Commercially Insured over 10 Years (2008 to 2017)
Read more: Opioid Prescriptions Declined 32% for the Commercially Insured over 10 Years (2008 to 2017)Among people who get health insurance from their employers (56% of the population in 2017), prescription opioid use peaked in 2010/2011 and declined every year from 2012 to 2017. In a new study using the Health Care Cost Institute’s commercial claims data from 2008 to 2017, we observed a decline regardless of how utilization was…
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Examining the adoption of a new Medicare billing code for cognitive assessments: a slow but steady uptake
Read more: Examining the adoption of a new Medicare billing code for cognitive assessments: a slow but steady uptakeOn January 1, 2017, the Medicare program started reimbursing providers for a new procedure code for clinical visits for cognitive assessments and care planning services (CPT code G0505). This newly-billable service is intended to improve the care of patients with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias and hopefully increase early detection and diagnosis. A G0505 visit…
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Lower Health Care Spending and Use for People with Chronic Conditions in Consumer-Directed Health Plans
Read more: Lower Health Care Spending and Use for People with Chronic Conditions in Consumer-Directed Health PlansTo better understand differences in spending and use across types of health plans, we examine individuals enrolled in consumer-directed health plans (CDHPs) and individuals enrolled in non-CDHP health plans. CDHPs are a type of HDHP that typically include a health savings account (HSA) or a health reimbursement arrangement (HRA). We analyzed a sample of over…
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Past the Price Index: Exploring Actual Prices Paid for Specific Services by Metro Area
Read more: Past the Price Index: Exploring Actual Prices Paid for Specific Services by Metro AreaAs policymakers, employers, and patients increasingly struggle with rising health care costs, there is a lack of clarity around the actual price of health care services and why those prices are so different. Recent efforts have focused on greater price transparency as a way to impact growing prices. A range of proposals from both Congress…
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Shifting Care from Office to Outpatient Settings: Services are Increasingly Performed in Outpatient Settings with Higher Prices
Read more: Shifting Care from Office to Outpatient Settings: Services are Increasingly Performed in Outpatient Settings with Higher PricesWhere people receive health care matters, especially in terms of costs. The same services may have a much higher price tag when performed in one setting rather than another, but this price difference is rarely publicized to patients. To understand what settings people used and how prices differed, we looked at the utilization and average…
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Surprise out-of-network medical bills during in-network hospital admissions varied by state and medical specialty, 2016
Read more: Surprise out-of-network medical bills during in-network hospital admissions varied by state and medical specialty, 2016Out-of-network billing practices have increasingly garnered attention as individuals with commercial health insurance continue to experience “surprise billing.” A surprise medical bill commonly describes a charge to a patient for care delivered by an out-of-network (OON) professional who works within an in-network facility. We used the Health Care Cost Institute’s (HCCI) vast commercial claims database to…
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2017 Health Care Cost and Utilization Report
Tags: Drug Spending, HCCUR, Inpatient Spending, Out-of-Pocket, Outpatient Spending, Physician Spending, Prices, Utilization
Read more: 2017 Health Care Cost and Utilization ReportThe 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…
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Spending on Individuals with Type 1 Diabetes and the Role of Rapidly Increasing Insulin Prices
Read more: Spending on Individuals with Type 1 Diabetes and the Role of Rapidly Increasing Insulin PricesWe used health care claims data to investigate trends in total health care spending on individuals with type 1 diabetes between 2012 and 2016. We found a rapid increase in total health care spending, driven primarily by gross spending on insulin that doubled over the period. During that time insulin use rose only modestly. While…