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Dec
09

How Differences Between Commercial, Medicare Professional Service Prices Could Result in Different Policy Impacts

 Introduction As rising health care costs force difficult choices for families, employers, and federal, state, and local governments, a range of policy proposals are emerging to address health care spending in the U.S. In this presidential election year, there has been heightened attention on lowering health care costs and making care more affordable, which will likely accelerate with the ele...

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Nov
28

Modern Healthcare: Targeting High-Risk Cancer Patients with Genetics

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-...

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Nov
19

Kaiser Health News: Surprise Federal Drug Rule Directs Insurers to Reveal What They Pay for Prescription Drugs

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...

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Nov
12

POLITICO Pulse: Health Care Cost Institute Finds More Evidence of Wild Price Swings

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...

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Nov
12

Past the Healthy Marketplace Index, Volume II: Exploring Changes in Actual Prices Paid for Specific Services by Metro Area from 2013 to 2017

In the first brief of the Past the Healthy Marketplace Index series, we explored how prices compared across the country and found that, in 2017, health care prices for specific services varied by as much as 22-fold across metro areas and even up 40-fold within them. In this next brief, we looked at variation in price growth and examined if that variation was related to the substantial observed dif...

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