Healthcare Costs

Providers Investing in Home Health to Prepare for Aging Population

June 27, 2018 by Jacqueline LaPointe

Faced with the pressure to reduce healthcare costs as the elderly population rapidly grows, providers plan to shift elder care from hospitals and skilled nursing facilities to the home, healthcare experts explained. According to CMS and...

How Addressing Social Determinants of Health Cuts Healthcare Costs

June 25, 2018 by Jacqueline LaPointe

Population health management and value-based reimbursement success hinge on reducing healthcare costs not only when a patient is in the exam room, but also when they are beyond the walls of the practice or hospital. Therefore,...

Quality Improvement Projects Save Children’s Hospitals Millions

June 21, 2018 by Jacqueline LaPointe

Care quality improvements require hospitals to invest their money, time, and staff. The investment may be large, but for two children’s hospitals it paid off, saving the organizations millions and reducing costly accidents and...

Healthcare Mergers, Increased Access to Boost Medical Costs 6%

June 18, 2018 by Jacqueline LaPointe

PwC’s Health Research Institute (HRI) predicts medical costs for employers to grow 6 percent in 2019 as healthcare mergers and more convenient care access options drive up healthcare costs and utilization. The medical cost trend is...

NJ Passes Healthcare Price Transparency Law to Stop Surprise Bills

June 11, 2018 by Jacqueline LaPointe

New Jersey policymakers are increasing healthcare price transparency in the state by enacting a new law intended to protect consumers from surprise bills for out-of-network health services. New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy signed Assembly...

ER Spending Rose 99% Since 2009 Despite No Change in Utilization

June 05, 2018 by Jacqueline LaPointe

Emergency room (ER) spending per person grew 99 percent between 2009 and 2016 despite ER utilization remaining the same during the period, new data from the Health Care Cost Institute (HCCI) revealed. “Emergency room visits are not...

4 Strategies for Providers to Improve Hospital Price Transparency

June 04, 2018 by Jacqueline LaPointe

Federal and state governments are ramping up efforts to increase hospital price transparency as consumers become more responsible for their healthcare costs under high-deductible health plans. However, provider organizations are...

Implants Driving Healthcare Cost Variation for Joint Replacements

May 29, 2018 by Jacqueline LaPointe

Hospitals have improved patient outcomes for total joint replacements, but the facilities still have a way to go with reducing healthcare cost variation for both hip and knee implants, a new Premier analysis revealed. The study of almost...

Shifting Vaccinations to the Pharmacy Lowers Healthcare Costs

May 17, 2018 by Jacqueline LaPointe

Pharmacies can administer a wide range of vaccines to patients at significantly lower healthcare costs than physician practices and other medical settings, a new report from the Pacific Research Institute found. The literature review...

Location, Market Competition Influence Hospital Price Variation

May 15, 2018 by Jacqueline LaPointe

Hospital prices for the privately insured depend on where a facility is located and how consolidated its market is, a recent Health Care Pricing Project analysis revealed. Using insurance claims from three of the largest commercial...

Giving GA Hospitals Healthcare Cost Data to Lowering Spending

May 14, 2018 by Jacqueline LaPointe

With claims reimbursement rates falling and competition among healthcare organizations intensifying, hospitals are calling on their providers to increase efficiency and reduce healthcare costs for each admission. So, what do providers...

Palliative Care Reduces Hospital Costs by Over $3K Per Patient

May 11, 2018 by Jacqueline LaPointe

Hospitals costs fell by an average of $3,237 per patient when providers added prompt palliative care to routine treatments during the course of a hospital stay, reported researchers from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and...

Industry Orgs Express Concerns with Healthcare Price Transparency

May 03, 2018 by Jacqueline LaPointe

Industry groups are cautioning a bipartisan group of Senators on the challenges and limitations of healthcare price transparency from the provider organization perspective after the policymakers called for more information on the topic...

Addressing Productivity, Labor to Bend the Healthcare Cost Curve

May 01, 2018 by Jacqueline LaPointe

From alternative payment models and value-based purchasing to artificial intelligence and data analytics tools, the healthcare industry is transforming how care is delivered and paid for to reduce constantly rising medical costs. While...

“Just the Beginning” of Healthcare Price Transparency, Verma Says

April 25, 2018 by Jacqueline LaPointe

Requiring hospitals to post a list of their standard charges online is just the beginning of the push for increased healthcare price transparency by CMS, explained the federal agency’s Administrator Seema Verma. “As people are...

CMS to Require Healthcare Price Transparency Online for Hospitals

April 25, 2018 by Jacqueline LaPointe

CMS is updating its healthcare price transparency guidance to hospitals in a new proposed rule. The rule would require hospitals to make a list of their standard charges public via the Internet. Through guidelines, the federal agency...

Healthcare Prices Hit Highest Annual Growth Rate Since Jan 2012

April 19, 2018 by Jacqueline LaPointe

The growth rate for healthcare prices increased 2.2 percent in March 2018 compared to the previous year, representing the greatest annual growth rate since January 2012, revealed the most recent Health Care Price Index from...

Slowing Employment Key to Reducing Healthcare Costs, Experts Argue

April 18, 2018 by Jacqueline LaPointe

Despite industry-wide efforts to cut spending, healthcare costs are unlikely to decrease unless the industry also reduces the growth in employment, professors from the Geisel School of Medicine, Dartmouth College and Kennedy School of...

3 Strategies to Decrease Low-Value Care, Healthcare Costs

April 09, 2018 by Jacqueline LaPointe

Low-value care, or care for which the potential harm outweighs the possible benefits or there are little to no benefits, is unnecessarily driving up already high healthcare costs and putting providers at risk under value-based...

CA Sues Sutter Health Over Healthcare Cost, Competition Concerns

April 02, 2018 by Jacqueline LaPointe

California’s Attorney General Xavier Becerra recently announced that the state filed a lawsuit against Sutter Health that accuses the largest health system in Northern California of engaging in anticompetitive behavior that resulted...