New Study On Disconnect Between Cost and Quality Outcomes

Modern Healthcare has analyzed data for hospitals in 12 different cities and found that for a common cardiology procedure, the hospitals with the lowest costs sometimes had the best quality outcomes. While limited in scope, the analysis suggests there is no consistent relationship between hospitals spending more to perform a procedure and their achieving better patient outcomes. A hospital's internal costs for delivering a service matter because those costs typically are reflected in what the hospital charges private insurers and patients.

The disconnect Modern Healthcare found between cost and quality for one procedure in 12 markets suggests that the transparency movement, if it gains critical mass across the country, could put pressure on hospitals to become more cost-efficient and improve their outcomes. That pressure could be especially great on higher-cost facilities that can't demonstrate better quality. Otherwise, payers and patients may take their business elsewhere.