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Apr
16

The Impact of COVID-19 on the Use of Preventive Health Care

Updated 4/16/2021 to include data through 12/30/2020. Since the original post on 9/9/2020, the data have been adjusted to account for claims submission lags. For more information, see Methods Note below. COVID-19 has had an extraordinary impact on the US health care system since its emergence in early 2020. One of the largest and most immediate impacts has been the death toll, with ...

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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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Apr
01

The Insanity of U.S. Health Care Pricing: An Early Look at Hospital Price Transparency Data

The numbers in this report have been updated to reflect the most recent pricing data made available by Sutter Health. While nearly all of the prices remained unchanged (93%), some, generally higher cost services were revised downward by Sutter. For example, in the initial report we found that C-section prices ranged from $7,634 to $89,244 across the Sutter system, whereas in the more recently avai...

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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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