healthcare costs

When discussing Hospital systems, non-profit is a tax status, not a revenue statement. In exchange for providing a range of “community” services, these institutions are tax-exempt. The Lown Foundation dishes the dirt on the profits and losses of some of our most prominent institutions.
FAIR Health aggregates pricing and cost information for private insurers of healthcare. Its annual report, on what we might consider primary care, shows the changes wrought by COVID-19 and how we seek care. [1]
An especially malignant fallacy is now circulating in the news, that the spike in COVID deaths can be explained by financial gain to physicians. That is totally untrue, and it's an unprecedented slap in the face to doctors and other healthcare workers. In a lesser-noticed moment, HHS moves towards more transparent healthcare costs.
The RAND Corporation recently released a study of hospital pricing for commercial insurance vs. Medicare, the de facto standard. It's no surprise that commercial insurance pays more than double Medicare. And those payments are not evenly distributed nationally, within states, or even health systems. 
High-tech medical advances make for sexy headlines, but the use of common-sense low-tech checklists can provide more than an ounce of prevention. ACSH advisor Dr. Henry Miller explains.
Price transparency means not having to settle for the MSRP, the manufacturer’s suggested retail price, or the sticker price or the friends-and-family discount. Instead, it means seeing the real, bottom-line price. So when it comes it medical care, why is this still an issue?
Why do teaching hospitals feel the need to write articles justifying why they are better? It makes you believe they have an inferiority complex. Do they?
When there is little if any money to be made curing a disease, non-profits could come to the rescue.
Why is everyone always above average? Hint-we are poor judges of our ability. Chemophobia is challenging to discuss, but it does drive 100% natural marketing. Are hospital administrators and their salaries growing at such a high rate that they are the cause of high prices? The graph says yes, the truth is a bit more nuanced. Finally, with all the concern about a replication crisis and the integrity of science, you would think that writing a paper debunking other research would be easy; you would be wrong.
A new study shows that after two weeks of intense training and practice a medical doctor can surgically repair a hernia just as well as a surgeon. Will this bring cost savings?
We can reduce the cost of surgical care for some, but that might place new costs on others, as knee and hip replacements demonstrate.
The Trump Administration recently issued two executive orders relating to biomedical science. The first involved the regulation of biotechnology products; the second involved transparency in healthcare costs. We believe both are a step in the right direction.