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.
___
(c)2015 the Boston Herald
Visit the Boston Herald at www.bostonherald.com
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
The post Massachusetts Report Says Disparities Drive Up Health Costs appeared first on SuperShare.Info.
from WordPress http://ift.tt/1gDJzW6
via IFTTT
0 Response to " Massachusetts Report Says Disparities Drive Up Health Costs "
Post a Comment