Study: Hospital Quality Reporting May Help Control Prices
Commercial health plans used hospital performance as leverage to negotiate prices, the study reported in Modern Healthcare found. Also in the news, author Steven Brill talks about how the health law has increased access to care but has yet to reduce costs.
Modern Healthcare:
Hospital Quality Reporting May Hold Down Prices
More public reporting on hospital quality could help to reduce hospital prices, results of a study suggest. The prices for two common cardiac procedures did not increase as quickly in states where the first public reporting on cardiac quality occurred when Medicare released it in 2007, researchers reported in the latest issue of Health Affairs. Prices for the same two procedures grew more quickly in states where cardiac quality data already was available. (Evans, 1/5)
CBS News:
"America's Bitter Pill" Author Steven Brill On Obamacare
Brill, who has spent years investigating the healthcare industry and the creation of the Affordable Care Act, said Obamacare has made healthcare more accessible for Americans; but the overall cost of healthcare has not gone down as the president said would happen. (1/5)
