Reference pricing, or capping payment for a particular medical service, has been gaining interest as a strategy to reduce health care costs. Using private insurance data as a measure, reference pricing applied to a narrow scope of inpatient services was shown to produce limited...

Average hospital outpatient department prices for common imaging, colonoscopy and laboratory services can be double the price for identical services provided in a physician’s office or other community-based setting.

This issue brief finds that when episodes of care involving hospitalizations, similar to Model 2 of the ongoing Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Bundled Payment for Care Improvement demonstration, are applied to privately insured patients, inpatient prices drive the bulk of...

A study examining the relationship between hospital characteristics and hospital prices can help inform the debate on controlling health care costs. Compared to other hospitals, high-price hospitals tend to be larger, be major teaching hospitals, belong to systems with large market shares,...

This issue brief finds that when episodes of care involving hospitalizations, similar to Model 2 of the ongoing Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Bundled Payment for Care Improvement demonstration, are applied to privately insured patients, inpatient prices drive the bulk of...

A study examining the relationship between hospital characteristics and hospital prices can help inform the debate on controlling health care costs.