PBGH Op-Ed on Cost Containment

NBCH member coalition, Pacific Business Group on Health, has published an op-ed in Politico on the subject of the role of employers in cost containment. The piece includes some specific proposals. Recognizing that action on broad Medicare reform is unlikely this year, PBGH is focusing on the specific issues that Congress seems to be interested in: 1) physician payment reform (including SGR replacement), 2) price transparency, and 3) quality measures. Co-authors David Lansky and Sally Welborn call on Congress to tackle the cost issue head-on by making both public and private-sector payment for care dependent on delivering the high-quality care every hardworking American deserves. They call on employers to work with federal payers to align incentives in all sectors of health care, including for both consumers and providers.

New HCCI Study: Higher prices for care may be driving health care costs ‎

A new study from the Health Care Cost Institute, a nonpartisan research group funded by insurers, found that costs rose 3.3 percent in 2010 even though people actually used fewer services in many categories. The report notes that spending grew not as a result of a lot of unnecessary procedures and treatments but because the services themselves were more expensive

Higher prices charged by hospitals, outpatient centers and other providers drove up health care spending at double the rate of inflation, Prices declined in only one category: nursing home care, which saw a 3.2 percent drop in the cost per admission. One of the areas with the fastest growing spending was children's medical care.

Coverage and commentary on this research can be found in a number of places today including articles from Julie Appleby in Kaiser Health News and Lester Feder in Politico.