Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Nov 14;10(1):5.
eCollection 2022 Nov.

Prices Paid to Hospitals by Private Health Plans: Findings from Round 4 of an Employer-Led Transparency Initiative

Christopher M Whaley, Brian Briscombe, Rose Kerber, Brenna O'Neill, Aaron Kofner

Prices Paid to Hospitals by Private Health Plans: Findings from Round 4 of an Employer-Led Transparency Initiative

Christopher M Whaley et al. Rand Health Q. .

Abstract

Because employer-sponsored spending comes from employee wages and benefits, employers have a fiduciary responsibility to administer benefits in the interest of participants. The lack of transparency of prices in the health care market limits the ability of employers to knowledgeably develop or implement benefit design decisions. This study uses medical claims data from a large population of privately insured individuals, including hospitals and other facilities from across the United States, and allows an easy comparison of hospital prices using a single metric. An important innovation of this study is that our data use agreements allow reporting on prices paid to hospitals and hospital systems (hospitals under joint ownership) identified by name.

Keywords: Employer Sponsored Health Insurance; Health Care Costs; Health Insurance Markets; Medicare.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Anderson Gerard F., Hussey Peter, Petrosyan Varduhi It's Still the Prices, Stupid: Why the US Spends So Much on Health Care, and a Tribute to Uwe Reinhardt Health Affairs 2019;38(1):87. , “. ,”. , vol. , No. , , pp. –. . - PubMed
    1. Anderson Gerard F., Reinhardt Uwe E., Hussey Peter S., Petrosyan Varduhi It's the Prices, Stupid: Why the United States Is So Different from Other Countries Health Affairs 2003;22(3):89. , “. ,”. , vol. , No. , , pp. –. . - PubMed
    1. Cooper Zack, Craig Stuart, Gaynor Martin, Harish Nir J., Krumholz Harlan M., Van Reenen John Hospital Prices Grew Substantially Faster Than Physician Prices for Hospital-Based Care in 2007–14 Health Affairs 2019a;38(2):184. , “. ,”. , vol. , No. , , pp. –. . - PubMed
    1. Cooper Zack, Craig Stuart V., Gaynor Martin, Van Reenen John The Price Ain't Right? Hospital Prices and Health Spending on the Privately Insured Quarterly Journal of Economics 2019b;134(1):51. , “. ,”. , vol. , No. , , pp. –. . - PMC - PubMed
    1. McGinty Tom, Mathews Anna Wilde, Evans Melanie Wall Street Journal. March 22, 2021. , “Hospitals Hide Pricing Data from Search Results,”. , .

LinkOut - more resources