Health Care Cost Institute: Exploring Changes in Actual Prices Paid for Specific Services by Metro Area from 2013 to 2017
By Kevin Kennedy, Elianna Clayton, Bill Johnson, Katie Martin November 12, 2020 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 […]
Health Care Cost Institute: Past the Healthy Marketplace Index, Volume I: Exploring Actual Prices Paid for Specific Services by Metro Area
By Kevin Kennedy, Elianna Clayton, Bill Johnson, Katie Martin November 12, 2020 How much people spend on health care from place to place reflects multiple, interwoven, and dynamic factors, such as the cost and use of services. Health care spending and its driving factors change over time, differ across geographies, and vary by type of service. The […]
Cape Cod Times: He died in 2005. This week, his mom was billed $120 for his COVID test
By Cynthia McCormick November 11, 2020 POCASSET — A Pocasset woman got a shock this week when she received a bill from a Boston hospital for a coronavirus test on her son, who died 15 years ago. Karen Eldridge said she found the bill from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston in her mailbox […]
NYT: These Towns Trusted a Doctor to Set Up Covid Testing. Sample Patient Fee: $1,944.
By Sarah Kliff November 10, 2020 Rebecca Sussman got a coronavirus test because town officials in Bedford, N.Y., encouraged her to. “If you haven’t gotten your test yet, please do so for yourself, your family and our community,” Chris Burdick, the town supervisor, said in an email. More tests would mean a lower positivity rate, […]
Peterson- KFF Health System Tracker: How costly are common health services in the United States?
By Daniel McDermott, Julie Hudman, Dustin Cotliar, Gary Claxton, Cynthia Cox and Matthew Rae November 4, 2020 It is well documented that the U.S. is an outlier among peer countries when it comes to health spending, and recent Peterson-KFF analysis finds that the cost of inpatient and outpatient care is the primary driver behind this gap in health expenditures. In addition, countless […]
NYT: A New Item on Your Medical Bill: The ‘Covid’ Fee
By Sarah Kliff and Jessica Silver-Greenberg November 5, 2020 When Michael Hambley got the call from his 87-year-old mother in July, he was sure there was a mistake. She told him that her assisted living facility, the one she paid for with her pension, was charging a one-time, $900 fee for masks, cleaning supplies and […]
NYT: When Hospitals Merge to Save Money, Patients Often Pay More
By Reed Abelson November 14, 2018 The nation’s hospitals have been merging at a rapid pace for a decade, forming powerful organizations that influence nearly every health care decision consumers make. The hospitals have argued that consolidation benefits consumers with cheaper prices from coordinated services and other savings. But an analysis conducted for The New […]
KFF: What We Know About Provider Consolidation
By Karyn Schwartz, Eric Lopez, Matthew Rae, Tricia Neuman September 2, 2020 The COVID-19 pandemic has led to dramatic decreases in health care spending, as patients and providers have delayed a wide range of health care services. The decrease in service use and spending resulted in a decline in revenue for many providers at the […]
Revcycle Intelligence: Private Equity-Acquired Hospitals Charge More for Common Services
By Jacqueline LaPointe August 27, 2020 Hospitals acquired by private equity firms are either charging more for common services, such as inpatient stays and emergency department visits, reducing operating costs, or both after acquisition, according to a recent study from Harvard University. The study published in JAMA Internal Medicine earlier this week found that hospitals acquired by private equity […]
NBC News: Private equity firms now control many hospitals, ERs and nursing homes. Is it good for health care?
By Gretchen Morgenson and Emannuelle Saliba May 13, 2020 In March, as the coronavirus gripped the nation, veteran emergency room doctor Ming Lin was growing concerned. Lin felt his facility, PeaceHealth St. Joseph Medical Center in Bellingham, Washington, was unprepared for the pandemic, so he went to his superiors for help. Frustrated by their response, […]