Briefing: Health Care Cost Reports
Gov. Deval Patrick’s administration recently released two reports on the cost of health care, one on the rapidly increasing price of insurance premiums and another on the wide disparities in the cost of treatment among the state’s hospitals.
How much have premiums increased?
The first state report, Premium Levels and Trends in Private Health Plans: 2007-2009, shows an annual increase of between 5 and 10 percent in the premiums for private group insurance, if plan benefits are held constant. Small group premiums rose the most — increasing more than 9 percent each year. During the same period, the Consumer Price Index for the Northeast region rose only 1.7 percent per year.
What other changes in private insurance did the report find?
Co-payments increased, and total benefits covered decreased.
How much does the price of care vary among hospitals?
The second report, Price Variation in Massachusetts Health Care Services, found that the price of a procedure could be nearly twice as much at one hospital than another. For the vaginal delivery of a baby, the charges ranged from $3,430 at Holyoke Hospital to $6,185 at Saint Elizabeth’s Medical Center in Boston.
How did Central Mass. hospitals stack up?
Heywood Hospital in Gardner was among the least expensive for the childbirth procedure, at $3,658, and Milford Regional Medical Center wasn’t far behind, at $3,821. Saint Vincent Hospital in Worcester, MetroWest Medical Center and HealthAlliance Hospitals in Leominster and Fitchburg were all in the $4,000 to $5,000 range. UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester was near the most expensive end of the spectrum at $5,781.
Don’t these price variations reflect things like supporting teaching at large hospitals and the use of new technologies?
The report suggests not. It says that Medicare adjusts its reimbursement rates based on these factors, resulting in a large variation among different hospitals, but it says the hospitals that received a higher rate from Medicare were not necessarily the ones that got more from private insurers.
Related links:
Press release from Gov. Deval Patrick
Premium Levels and Trends in Private Health Plans: 2007-2009
Price Variation in Massachusetts Health Care Services
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