Fighting Skyrocketing Hospital Prices, Leading Employer Groups Join Better Solutions for Healthcare to Launch National Campaign
Aimed at Stopping the Rise of Hospital-driven Health Costs Borne by Employers and Patients, Coalition Sets its Sights on Federal Policymakers WASHINGTON, DC – (April 18, 2023) – Better Solutions for Healthcare, a coalition of business and healthcare industry leaders, has added national employers and healthcare industry players as it launches its federally focused campaign. […]
Our Principles
Competition, Transparency, Accountability The majority of healthcare spending is driven by monopolistic hospital systems. To lower costs, we need effective market-based solutions that increase competition in local markets, drive efficiency in the delivery of healthcare, and inform patients about the cost and quality of care received. We support strengthening market competition, so hospitals compete on […]
As hospitals raise their prices, U.S. workers and businesses suffer
Despite a recent taxpayer-subsidized boon, the hospital industry spent the last several months lobbying for additional federal dollars amid warnings about the continued spread of Covid-19 and inflation’s impact on the nation’s health care system. Those efforts bore fruit: Medicare recently granted hospitals the largest price increase since 1998. Never mind that the supply chain challenges and […]
Analysis: Inconsistencies Within Hospital Price Transparency Data Make Cost Comparisons Difficult
Since 2021, federal law has required hospitals to publicly post information about their standard prices and negotiated discount rates for common health services to encourage consumers to compare prices and to promote competition. To date, however, the transparency data currently shared by hospitals to comply with the law are messy, inconsistent and confusing, making it […]
Only 25% of Hospitals Are Complying with the Price Transparency Rule
February 08, 2023 – Less than a quarter of hospitals are complying with the hospital price transparency rule over two years after the regulation went into effect, according to a report from PatientRightsAdvocate.org. The Fourth Semi-Annual Hospital Price Transparency Report reflects publicly available data from 2,000 hospitals in the US. Researchers assessed the hospitals’ websites from December 10, 2022, […]
Hospitals are hiding prices from patients, advocacy report says
The hospital price transparency rule, which took effect in January 2021, requires hospitals to publish machine-readable price lists and display rates for medical services in a format that allows consumers to comparison shop. Insurers are now required to disclose rates they negotiate with providers. In the first year after the hospital rule, studies evaluating compliance […]
How America’s Hospitals Are Hiding the Cost of Health Care
America’s health care system is built upon a lack of transparency.1 In most states, it is nearly impossible for individuals and families to compare the cost of health care services and procedures like they would when shopping for gas, groceries, or housing. This intentional lack of transparency confuses consumers, hides true costs, and drives up prices.2 […]
Bigger But Not Better: Hospital Mergers Increase Costs and Do Not Improve Quality
The final verdict on hospital networks is in. Despite all of the self promoting ads in the media, hospital mergers increase costs and do not improve quality. The Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) Director of the Bureau of Economics recently stated that when hospitals merge they face less competition and charge as much 40 to 50 […]
Hospital Consolidation Continues to Boost Costs, Narrow Access, and Impact Care Quality
As hospital consolidations swept the country over the last three decades, their executives predicted the moves would produce lower costs. But decades of health services research focused on the actual results of this trend have found the opposite. Consolidation has consistently produced higher care prices. Nevertheless in 2023, health care merger mania not only continues, […]
Addressing Hospital Concentration and Rising Consolidation in the United States
The US health system in general, and the US hospital sector in particular, are largely market-based. Both public and private payers rely on competition between hospitals to drive quality. Hospitals compete with one another over prices and quality in order to attract commercially insured patients and to be included in insurers’ networks. Each year, hospitals […]