Sept. 19--Large disparities in the prices insurance companies pay providers are contributing to ongoing dysfunction in the state's health care market, threatening cost-containment goals and burdening families and businesses with excessive costs, according to a new Attorney General's Office report.
Increases in the prices negotiated between insurers and health care providers have been a "major" reason for escalating premiums, the AG's Office found, and higher-priced providers are drawing patient volume from lower-priced ones, further increasing costs.
Those trends, coupled with new growth in pharmacy costs and use of health care services, point to a "likely failure" to hold spending increases below the 3.6 percent benchmark the state set for 2015, the report said.
"Continued cost increases are a burden on families and businesses," Attorney General Maura Healey said in a statement, "and it is clear more needs to be done to address continuing payment disparities that threaten long-term cost-containment goals."
Lora Pellegrini, president and CEO of the Massachusetts Association of Health Plans, said the report "confirms what we've known for the last five years: The disparity between the highest- and lowest-priced providers appears to be getting worse."
The Massachusetts Medical Society, which represents doctors and medical students, declined to comment.
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