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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Media coverage of HCCI’s original research
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Feb
02
Jan
19
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...
Jan
11
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...
Jan
11
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...
Jan
04
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...
Jan
04
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...
Nov
28
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-...
Nov
19
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...
Nov
12
HCCI's Past the Healthy Marketplace Index reports were mentioned in POLITICO's Pulse Newsletter. From the newsletter: "In reports set to be released this morning, the institute digs into the varying prices of procedures across the country, and even within the same area. For instance, one report probes the actual prices paid for common services across 100 metro areas; the same blood test in T...
Nov
10
HCCI's research on prices for COVID tests and other panel testing was featured in The New York Times. From the article: "Insurers typically reimburse the panel test at a higher rate, often paying six times what they would for a regular coronavirus test, according to data provided by the nonprofit Health Care Cost Institute." These Towns Trusted a Doctor to Set Up Cov...
Oct
31
HCCI's research on spending for individuals with employer-sponsored health insurance was featured in an article for Modern Healthcare. From the article: "Spending per person with employer-sponsored insurance was about $5,900 in 2018, according to the Health Care Cost Institute's latest data." Caring for Medicare Advantage patients now a growth business Medicare Advantage patients are the unlikely ...
Oct
26
HCCI's 2018 HCCUR report was cited in a GAO study on Medicare payments for anesthesia services. From the report: "The Health Care Cost Institute calculated that in 2017 private insurance payments ranged from 2 to 7 times Medicare payments, on average, across six common services provided by anesthesiologists in 33 states. Wide state-to-state variation within specific services was reported." U...
Oct
19
HCCI's research on the utilization of preventive health care during the coronavirus pandemic was featured in an issue brief by KFF. From the article: "An analysis of data from 18 states that was published by the Health Care Cost Institute found similar patterns for childhood vaccinations and cancer screenings." Trends in Overall and Non-COVID-19 Hospital Admissions – Issue Brief – 9560 | KFF...
Oct
15
HCCI's research in conjunction with the Berkeley Research Group on years of life lost during the coronavirus pandemic was featured in Modern Healthcare. From the article: "About 1.9 million years of life have been lost from April to August, which is a 13% increase over the historical average, according to a Health Care Cost Institute analysis that compared obituary and life exp...
Sep
23
HCCI's research on the impact on COVID-19 on preventative care services was featured in Modern Healthcare. From the article: "And preventive care hasn't fully recovered. Mammograms and Pap smears were down nearly 80% in April and nearly 25% in June, according to an analysis of claims data from the Health Care Cost Institute published earlier this month." Inpatient volumes, surgeri...
Sep
11
HCCI's research on non-urgent medical care during the coronavirus pandemic was featured in The New York Times. From the article: "Vaccinations dropped by nearly 60 percent in April, and almost no one was getting a colonoscopy, according to new data from the nonprofit Health Care Cost Institute. The data, drawn from millions of health insurance claims, shows a consistent patt...
Sep
01
HCCI's research on insulin prices was cited by Kaiser Health News. From the article: "Patients who need insulin have faced huge cost spikes. A 2019 report by the Health Care Cost Institute concluded that average prices for insulin doubled from 2012 to 2016." California Rx: State May Dive Into Generic Drug Market | Kaiser Health News California could become the first state to deve...
Aug
31
HCCI's Guroo tool was cited in a STAT article on direct versus insurance-covered health care service prices. From the article: "I compared prices from this health system's booklet to the average allowed amounts for the same services reported by the Health Care Cost Institute's Guroo tool for hospitals in the state of Pennsylvania. For all services for which insurers pay more than ...
Aug
28
HCCI's research on comparing commercial and Medicare professional service prices was featured in the newsletter of the Association of Health Care Journalists. From the article: "In Comparing Commercial and Medicare Professional Service Prices, HCCI researchers compared what health insurers paid to physicians and other providers with what Medicare pays for those services. This repor...
Aug
27
Health Affairs: The Hospital Industry Is In A Financial Mess: We Have A Unique Opportunity To Fix It
HCCI's research on hospital market concentration was featured on the Health Affairs blog. From the article: "Economists have long worried about the growth in hospital concentration. A 2019 study by the Health Care Cost Institute showed that the percentage of metro regions with hospital markets defined as highly concentrated based on Department of Justice criteria rose from 67 perc...
Aug
13
Policy Proposals Based on Medicare Rates Could Have Dramatically Different Geographic Impacts WASHINGTON D.C. — The average commercial cost of medical professional services compared to the rate Medicare pays is 122% nationally, and ranges from a low of 98% in Alabama to a high of 188% in Wisconsin, according to a new report from the Health Care Cost Institute (HCCI). In addition to this cross-stat...
Aug
10
HCCI's research on geographic variation in health insurance spending in the employer-sponsored health insurance population was cited in Bloomberg Opinion. From the article: "A new study from the Health Care Cost Institute in Washington has found a similar dynamic for employer-sponsored insurance: When a beneficiary moves to an area with 10% higher health-care spending, that person's spending...
Aug
03
HCCI's work on the growth in private health insurance spending was recently cited in an article by Health Affairs. From the article: "The supremacy of price is also supported by the work of the Health Care Cost Institute (HCCI), which found that between 2014 and 2018, US private insurer health spending per person increased by 18.4 percent, while per person use increased by only 3.1 perc...
Aug
01
HCCI's President and CEO Niall Brennan was recently quoted in a ProPublica article on extremely high coronavirus test billing rates by out-of-network providers. From the article: "The SignatureCare charges shocked experts who study health care costs. Charging $2,479 for a drive-thru COVID-19 test is a 'nauseating' example of profiteering during a pandemic, said Niall Bren...
Jul
23
HCCI's research on daily deaths during the coronavirus pandemic was featured in the Carolina Journal. From the article: "Any estimates come from the private sector and from unusual data-gathering methods. One such estimate says the state's deaths were 13% higher than normal levels on April 23, according to the private nonprofit Health Care Cost Institute, which uses obituaries to track deaths acro...
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