CHCF: The Sky’s the Limit: Health Care Prices and Market Consolidation in California
By Richard M. Scheffler, Daniel R. Arnold, and Brent D. Fulton October 3, 2019 California pays significantly more for common health care services than the rest of the country, and the gap has been widening. Various inpatient and outpatient services (see box) cost more in California than in other states, and they cost more in […]
WAPO: The Health 202: Pandemic relief funds boosted surpluses for some large hospitals
By Alexandra Ellerbeck with Paige Winfield Cunningham June 21, 2021 The Biden administration is giving hospitals and other providers even more time to use coronavirus relief money and apply for more. Yet many of the larger, wealthier hospitals have been back to normal operations for months — and they posted banner profits in 2020. Hospital […]
Health System Tracker: Ground ambulance rides and potential for surprise billing
By Krutika Amin, Karen Pollitz, Gary Claxton, Matthew Rae, and Cynthia Cox June 24, 2021 In December 2020, Congress passed the “No Surprises Act,” which prohibits most surprise out-of-network billing for plan years beginning in 2022. Surprise bills occur when a patient receives care from an out-of-network provider or facility during an emergency visit or […]
KHN: Despite Covid, Many Wealthy Hospitals Had a Banner Year With Federal Bailout
By Jordan Rau and Christine Spolar April 5, 2021 Last May, Baylor Scott & White Health, the largest nonprofit hospital system in Texas, laid off 1,200 employees and furloughed others as it braced for the then-novel coronavirus to spread. The cancellation of lucrative elective procedures as the hospital pivoted to treat a new and less […]
Modern Healthcare: In alleged healthcare ‘money grab,’ nation’s largest hospital chain cashes in on trauma centers
By Jay Hancock June 14, 2021 After falling from a ladder and cutting his arm, Ed Knight said, he found himself at Richmond, Virginia’s Chippenham Hospital surrounded by nearly a dozen doctors, nurses and technicians — its crack “trauma team” charged with saving the most badly hurt victims of accidents and assaults. But Knight’s wound, […]
ProPublica: Some Hospitals Kept Suing Patients Over Medical Debt Through the Pandemic
By Jenny Deam June 14, 2021 Last year as COVID-19 laid siege to the nation, many U.S. hospitals dramatically reduced their aggressive tactics to collect medical debt. Some ceased entirely. But not all. There was a nearly 90% drop overall in legal actions between 2019 and the first seven months of 2020 by the nation’s […]
AXIOS Vitals: 1 big thing: America’s biggest hospitals vs. their patients
By Tina Reed June 14, 2021 More than a quarter of the 100 U.S. hospitals with the highest revenue sued patients over unpaid medical bills between 2018 and mid-2020, according to new research by Johns Hopkins University provided exclusively to Axios. Why it matters: The report suggests that, rather than being an anomaly, patient lawsuits […]
AXIOS: How America’s top hospitals hound patients with predatory billing
By Michelle McGhee and Will Chase June 14, 2021 In February 2018, Stephen Swett went to the emergency room at Westchester Medical Center in New York seeking help for withdrawal from Suboxone, which treats opioid addiction. Swett — a 44-year old truck driver — says he sat on a gurney until he was discharged. Then […]
Modern Healthcare: Big business wants to take on D.C.’s hospital lobby
By Jessie Hellmann June 7, 2021 Groups representing some of the largest employers in the U.S. are urging Congress to take on hospitals, arguing consolidation and unfair pricing is driving healthcare costs up at an unsustainable rate. Corporations previously tended to stay out of controversial healthcare fights on Capitol Hill that would create more government intervention in […]
Catalyst: New study finds some hospitals mark up medicine prices at least 700 percent
By Holly Campbell September 5, 2018 A new analysis from The Moran Company found nearly one in five hospitals marks up medicine prices 700 percent or more. With this 700 percent markup, a $150 medicine purchased by a hospital could cost patients up to $1,050. The study, which was commissioned by PhRMA and looked at total costs […]