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Dec
17

Vox: A CT scan costs $1,100 in the US — and $140 in Holland

HCCI's work with iFHP on international comparisons of health care price was featured in a Vox article.   America’s health care costs problem, explained in 4 charts - Vox America’s health care prices problem, in four charts. https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/12/17/21024614/us-health-care-costs-medical-prices

Nov
22

Vox: Her son died after insurers resisted covering drug rehab. Now she's taking them to court.

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 pa...

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Jan
22

Vox: Prices at Zuckerberg Hospital’s Emergency Room are Higher Than Anywhere Else in San Francisco

HCCI's claims data was recently used to support investigations by Sarah Kliff into emergency room pricing in San Francisco. From Vox:   "Data from the non-profit Health Care Cost Institute shows that the average price at other San Francisco-area emergency rooms is $2,000 — less than half the city hospital's price. "A privately insured patient does not seem to be getting a very good ...

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Dec
14

Vox: The Medicare-for-all paradox

Passing single-payer means disrupting health insurance for 160 million people who get coverage through their jobs  ​HCCI Data was featured in Vox showing the annual growth in per capita health care spending.  By: Dylan Scott Jessica Salfia knew the pay wasn't going to be great when she became a teacher in Martinsburg, West Virginia, but she did have really good health coverage. She felt ...

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Jun
20

Vox: The absurdity of American health care pricing, in one chart

​Research using HCCI data shows the different prices patients face for the same procedures performed in the same hospitals. "a new paper from economists Zack Cooper, Stuart Craig, Martin Gaynor, and John Van Reenen sheds light on another fascinating type of variation: price differences within a single hospital. Their research is the first I've seen that shows insurers pay different prices for...

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May
01

Vox: She didn’t get treated at the ER. But she got a $5,751 bill anyway.

 By: Sarah Kliff On October 19, 2016, Jessica Pell fainted and hit her head on a nearby table, cutting her ear. She went to the emergency room at Hoboken University Medical Center, where she was given an ice pack. She received no other treatment. She never received any diagnosis. But a bill arrived in the mail for $5,751. "It's for the ice pack and the bandage," Pell said of the fee. "That is...

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Dec
08

Advisory Board: ED visits down - but ED facility fee spending is up, Vox analysis suggests

Spending on emergency department (ED) facility fees rose steadily between 2009 and 2015, even as the overall number of ED fees billed declined, according to an analysis of Health Care Cost Institute (HCCI) data, Sarah Kliff writes for Vox. However, the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) is pushing back against the findings, noting that the analysis examined only spending by employer-s...

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Dec
04

Vox: Emergency rooms are monopolies. Patients pay the price.

By: Sarah Kliff  Around 1 am on August 20, Ismael Saifan woke up with a terrible pain in his lower back, likely the result of moving furniture earlier that day. "It was a very sharp muscle pain," Saifan, a 39-year-old engineer, remembers. "I couldn't move or sleep in any position. I was trying laying down, sitting down, nothing worked." Saifan went online to figure out where he could see a do...

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Apr
27

Vox: How much does the chicken pox vaccine cost? Depends on where you live

By: Sarah Kliff  How much you pay for health care often depends on one key fact: where you live. A new study of more than 1 billion medical bills makes this fact abundantly clear. It shows huge variation in the price of basic medical procedures like ultrasounds, annual physicals, or cataract removals. Consider this: An ultrasound for pregnancy costs an average of $183 in Canton, Ohio. But dri...

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