Per-Person Health Care Spending Grew 18% from 2014 to 2018, Driven Mostly by PricesAfter remaining stable for several years, utilization increased slightly in 2018Access the report here.WASHINGTON D.C. — Average employer-sponsored insurance (ESI) spending rose to $5,892 per person in 2018, according to the Health Care Cost Institute's annual Health Care Cost and Utilization Report, which analyzes ...
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Feb
13
Jan
30
HCCI research on the potential effects of price transparency on price variation was cited in a recent Washington Post article."There is more wiggle room on the high side — it could make up for price increases on the lower side," said Kevin Kennedy, one of the study researchers. The Health 202: Health-care costs might decline if hospitals are forced by the Trump administration to disclose thei...
Jan
29
On November 27, 2019 CMS proposed a rule (CMS-9915-P) requiring group health plans and health insurance issuers in the individual and group markets to disclose cost-sharing information to enrollees, including an estimates of an enrollee's cost-sharing liability for covered items or services furnished by a particular provider. As also noted in our comments on rule CMS-1717-P, HC...
Dec
23
$2 million grant will support HCCI's ongoing work to study drivers of health care spending WASHINGTON (December 23, 2019) — The The Health Care Cost Institute (HCCI) today announced a $2 million grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) that will support a significant expansion of HCCI's commercial claims data. With new data sources, and enabled by this grant, HCCI's commercial claims d...
Nov
27
The Health Care Cost Institute (HCCI) was thrilled to make the shortlist for the Kantar Information is Beautiful Awards in the Humanitarian category. Information is Beautiful celebrates excellence and beauty in data visualizations, infographics, interactives, and information art – and the work it features serves as inspiration to HCCI. Over the past year, with support from the Robert Wood Johnson ...
Nov
25
HCCI data was cited in a Health Affairs blog article on surprise billing. From the Article:"Over the past year, the congressional debate over surprise billing has converged on two policy options to resolve out-of-network payments—1) a simple benchmark, in which a health plan pays out-of-network providers the median rate agreed with local in-network providers in the same specialty, or 2...
Nov
22
HCCI data was used in an article about the cost of substance use disorder rehab. From the article:"Insurers do seem to be paying more for addiction care than they used to. According to the Health Care Cost Institute, commercial insurers spent a little more than $17,000 on the average patient with a substance use disorder in 2017, up from nearly $13,500 in 2008. That's likely due in part...
Nov
19
HCCI data on market concentration was mentioned in a Health Affairs blog post.From the article:"Before we even get into the merits and effects of Congress' fix for surprise billing, it's worth noting that the status quo is bad for networks. Most markets—particularly in urban areas—are highly concentrated, giving providers such as hospitals and specialists a great deal of market power. The Health C...
Nov
12
In HCCI's publication in Health Affairs Blog, we examine the case for systemic health system transparency and directing changes towards key stakeholders. From the article:"Health care costs strain the budgets of families, businesses, and governments, leaving less room for other spending and forcing painful tradeoffs. In 2017, the United States spent $3.5 trillion on health care - &...
Nov
11
Addition of Blue Cross and Blue Shield companies' data will expand nation's leading resource for understanding health care cost trends. CHICAGO (November 12, 2019) – The Health Care Cost Institute (HCCI) and Blue Health Intelligence® (BHI®) announced today a multi-year data partnership, significantly expanding HCCI's data resources and bolstering its ability to provide research insights to a...
Oct
03
HCCI research on market concentration was mentioned in a New York Times article.From the article:"Sutter is hardly the only mega-system in the country. Nearly three-quarters of metropolitan areas were considered highly concentrated hospital markets in 2016, according to a recent analysis by the Health Care Cost Institute, a nonprofit group." High Medical Bills Are at Center of Hospital ...
Sep
25
HCCI's 2017 Health Care Cost and Utilization Report was cited in a Wall Street Journal article on the cost of employer-sponsored insurance. From the article: "A major driver of the cost of coverage has been the rising prices that insurers and employers pay for health care, said Niall Brennan, chief executive of the Health Care Cost Institute, a nonprofit. "The vast majority of ...
Sep
25
Research from HCCI's Healthy Marketplace Index on variation in service prices was featured in a report on c-sections from U.S. News & World Report.From the article: "Exactly why doctors continue to perform cesareans for low-risk deliveries is a layered issue that appears more closely tied to system-level breakdowns than to individual physicians.For example, researchers have theo...
Sep
25
On August 9, 2019, CMS released a rule for calendar year 2020 revisions to the Medicare hospital outpatient prospective payment system (CMS-1717-P).Our comments specifically refer to Title 45 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 180 on Price Transparency of Hospital Standard Charges. Feedback will be used to guide discussions on improving price transparency in health care. We are con...
Sep
20
HCCI data on the cost of childbirth was mentioned in a report by NPR.From the article:"C-sections also cost more than vaginal deliveries. In the Denver area, for instance, the average vaginal delivery costs $7,716 while the average C-section costs $14,274, according to 2019 data from the Health Care Cost Institute. On average, commercial and Medicaid insurers pay 50% more for C-sections than ...
Sep
19
HCCI data on ER facility fees was cited in a NPR in a story about a $12,460 ER bill. From the article:"The Health Care Cost Institute, an independent, nonprofit health research firm, recently analyzed millions of insurance bills to get a better sense of the facility fees that ERs are charging. It found the charges nearly doubled from 2009 to 2016, outpacing overall health spending f...
Sep
17
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 tha...
Aug
26
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 researched ...
Aug
12
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 co...
Aug
02
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 Lil...
Aug
01
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 infu...
Jul
30
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, inpa...
Jun
29
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
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 ab...
Jun
04
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 Hea...
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