A growing body of evidence suggests private equity investments in health care have raised provider prices and reduced care quality in certain settings. In a new Health Affairs Forefront article, Linda Blumberg and Kennah Watts look at the track record of private equity acquisitions and how cost-containment efforts could help mitigate private equity’s influence and improve patient outcomes.
Federal regulations require hospitals and insurers to publish negotiated prices. States are also playing a role in this effort by monitoring compliance with the federal rules and implementing other policies to educate consumers and improve this cost-containment tool. In their recent Health Affairs Forefront article, Maanasa Kona and Nadia Stovicek look at state actions to promote price transparency.
The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services recently released a final rule setting standards for the Affordable Care Act Marketplaces and health insurers for plan year 2025. In their latest Health Affairs Forefront article, Sabrina Corlette and Jason Levitis discuss the new Marketplace standards, insurance reforms, and policies concerning Advance Premium Tax Credits.
Last month the Biden administration finalized rules establishing new standards and disclosure requirements for certain limited benefit products. In one of her recent Health Affairs Forefront articles, Sabrina Corlette takes a look at what’s in the final regulations.
Last month, the Biden administration proposed changes to Affordable Care Act (ACA) Marketplace policies and procedures. In a post for Health Affairs Forefront, Sabrina Corlette and Jason Levitis take a look at the proposals related to market reforms, Marketplace standards, and premium tax credits.
It’s open enrollment season for many employer health plans, and the rising cost of care may increase workers’ premiums and out-of-pocket expenditures. Recently, CHIR surveyed state employee health plans (SEHP) to identify challenges and opportunities for controlling health care costs. In a new post for Health Affairs Forefront, Sabrina Corlette and Karen Davenport discuss the survey findings and how SEHP strategies can inform broader cost containment efforts.
Consumers are facing higher out-of-pocket costs when they receive outpatient care due to hospital “facility fees.” In a post for Health Affairs Forefront, Linda Blumberg and Christine Monahan provide a primer on facility fees, including the trend of hospital consolidation driving these fees and federal policy options to protect consumers from rising costs in outpatient settings.
As hospitals expand and take over outpatient care settings, consumers are facing additional charges in the form of facility fees when they see physicians and other providers. In a new post for Health Affairs Forefront, Christine Monahan and Linda Blumberg detail congressional proposals to reform billing practices that expose consumers to facility fees.
Under the No Surprises Act, consumers are held harmless beyond in-network cost sharing when they receive certain kinds of out-of-network care. In these scenarios, to determine the provider’s payment, payers and providers may enter independent dispute resolution (IDR). Recently, federal agencies released an initial report on the No Surprises Act’s IDR process. In a post for Health Affairs Forefront, CHIR experts Jack Hoadley and Kevin Lucia analyze the new report and discuss what it suggests about the No Surprises Act.
For the September Research Round Up, CHIR’s Olivia Hoppe dives into studies on trends in employer health benefits, potential effects of value-based purchasing, and how hospital consolidation affects prices across the country.
The opinions expressed here are solely those of the individual blog post authors and do not represent the views of Georgetown University, the Center on Health Insurance Reforms, any organization that the author is affiliated with, or the opinions of any other author who publishes on this blog.
