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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...

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Aug
13

Comparing Commercial and Medicare Professional Service Prices

People in the United States routinely cite health care and health care costs as top concerns.1,2,3,4 For the more than 160 million people who get insurance from their employer, the cost of health care is high, growing, and outpacing growth in wages.5,6,7 Across the country, health care costs show up in the form of higher premiums and higher out-of-pocket costs (for services that are both...

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Aug
13

Health Care Cost Institute: Wide Variation in Commercial Prices vs. Medicare Rates Across & Within U.S. States

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...

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Aug
13

Commercial Prices Relative to Medicare Vary Within Metro Areas Across Specialties and by Type of Service

Earlier HCCI research found that at the national level, commercial payers paid prices that were, on average, 122% of Medicare. However, we found that commercial professional service prices varied dramatically across states from 98% of Medicare in Alabama to 188% of Medicare in Wisconsin. There was similar variation within states, such as California, and also substantial variation within Metro Area...

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Aug
10

Bloomberg: Covid Stimulus Spending Should Aim to Improve Health-Care Value

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...

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