Posted by Michael Wonder on 23 Jul 2019
The commercial differential for hospital prices: responses from states and employers
22 July 2019 - The prices paid for hospital services have long had a strange dichotomy.
For the 37% of the population insured by Medicare or Medicaid, prices are publicly available and generally increase slowly. By contrast, prices for the commercially insured population are privately negotiated, proprietary, and confidential. These rates are closely guarded by health plans, who are convinced that negotiating with clinicians and health care organisations on behalf of consumers is a source of competitive differentiation.
However, the black box of commercial insurer prices is slowly being pried open.
