Health care costs

Private Insurer Payments Far Exceed Medicare Payments, Study Finds

“…employers and private insurers … paid 247 percent of what Medicare would have paid for the same services at the same facilities,” according to a new study by the Rand Corporation, which also notes that “This difference increased from 224 percent of Medicare in 2016 and 230 percent in 2017.” The study also found that: From 2016 to 2018, the overall relative price for hospitals (including inpatient and outpatient care) increased from 224 to 247 percent, a compounded annual rate of increase of 5.1 percent. Some states (Arkansas, Michigan, Rhode Island) had relative prices under 200 percent of Medicare; others [...]

admin2020-09-23T13:39:09+00:00September 23, 2020|Medicare, Medicare reimbursement policy|

Hospital Prices Lead Rise in Health Care Costs, Study Finds

A new study has concluded that rising hospital prices, not increased utilization, is primarily responsible for rising health care costs. Overall, according to a new analysis by the Health Care Cost Institute, health care costs continue to rise despite declining health care utilization. Among the report’s findings: Hospital prices are rising faster than physician prices. ER prices rose more than twice as much as ER utilization in 2017. Increases in spending for psychiatric services outpaced increases in utilization of those services. Inpatient spending rose 10 percent between 2013 and 2017 even though inpatient utilization fell five percent during that period. [...]

admin2019-02-14T06:00:19+00:00February 14, 2019|hospitals|

Government More Effective Than Private Sector at Controlling Health Care Costs

For the past dozen years, Medicare and Medicaid have done a better job of controlling rising health care costs than private insurers. Since 2016, according to a new report from the Urban Institute, private insurers’ costs per enrolled member have risen an average of 4.4 percent a year. By contrast, Medicare costs have risen an average of 2.4 percent per enrollee and Medicaid costs have risen just 1.6 percent per enrollee. The primary driver of Medicare cost increases has been prescription drug spending. For Medicaid the primary driver has been physician services and administrative costs. For private insurers, the main [...]

admin2019-02-13T06:00:47+00:00February 13, 2019|Medicaid, Medicare|

Tiered Networks = Lower Costs

Health plans that employ tiered provider networks reduce health care spending, a study has found. The report, published in the journal Health Affairs, found that tiered provider networks reduced spending on inpatient, outpatient, and outpatient radiology among non-elderly members of commercial health plans by five percent. Learn more about this conclusion and how researchers reached it in the Health Affairs article “Enrollment In A Health Plan With A Tiered Provider Network Decreased Medical Spending By 5 Percent,” which can be found here.

admin2017-05-11T06:00:24+00:00May 11, 2017|Uncategorized|