Commercial Health Plan Data Links Hospital Consolidation To Higher Costs

An analysis of commercial health plan data for private employer-sponsored health insurance linked hospital market consolidation to higher costs. Hospital prices within regions were the primary driver of variation in costs over five years of claims paid by Aetna, Humana, and UnitedHealth for 2007 through 2011. The claims data revealed that hospital prices in monopoly markets were 15% higher than prices in markets with four or more hospital provider organizations. The average price of an inpatient stay in a monopoly hospital market was about $1,900 higher than an inpatient stay in a market with four or more competitors . . .