Healthcare Town Hall

By jeremy.engdahl-johnson

A recent study seeks out locations where hospitals are able to provide high value care to both Medicare and commercial patients. Here is an excerpt:

Many private payers are concerned that current government (Medicare and Medicaid) provider payments get translated into higher provider charges to commercial payers, which increases private payer premiums and claims costs for self-insured plans. This study was commissioned to look at actual data from commercial insurers to help answer this question:“Are cities that are high value for Medicare inpatient care also high value for private payers, or do they look better because private payers were charged more to enhance inpatient revenue?”

There are important policy implications, depending on which part of the question above is correct. It is important to reframe the high value definition as those cities  and hospitals that provide the best inpatient hospital value for all payers, consumers and the community as a whole.

So where are the high value cities? Here is the list:

• Tucson, Ariz.
• Albuquerque, N.M.
• Sarasota, Fla.
• Akron, Ohio
• Honolulu, Hawaii
• Medford, Ore.
• Boise, Idaho
• Portland, Ore.
• Portland, Maine
• Pittsburgh, Pa.
• Grand Rapids, Mich.
• Knoxville, Tenn.
• Asheville, N.C.
• Newport News, Va.
• Fargo, N.D./Moorhead, Minn.
• Spokane, Wash.

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Efficiency Bruce Pyenson, cost shift, geographic cost disparity, NBGH