According to a new RAND report, prices paid to hospitals during 2022 by employers and private insurers averaged 254 percent of what Medicare would have paid. The RAND research organization stated in a Press release on May 13 that there is a wide variation in prices between states. RAND concluded that while some states had relative prices below 200 percent of Medicare, other states had relative prices above 300 percent of Medicare.
The study found that in 2022, relative prices for inpatient hospital services averaged 255 percent of Medicare prices, outpatient hospital services averaged 289 percent, and associated professional services averaged 188 percent of Medicare prices. what Medicare would have paid.
“Hospitals account for the majority of healthcare spending in the United States, so this report also provides valuable information that can help policymakers interested in curbing healthcare costs,” he said in a statement. Rand Health Care Director Peter S. Hussey.
He American Hospital Association (AHA) disputed the conclusions of the RAND report. On May 13 Press releaseThe group’s vice president for public policy, Molly Smith, said: “In what is becoming an all-too-familiar pattern, the RAND Corporation’s latest hospital pricing report overstates and underwhelms. Their analysis…still represents less than 2 percent of total hospital spending.”
Smith said RAND makes an “apples-to-oranges comparison.” “In addition to the current error of relying on a self-selected data sample, their analysis is suspiciously silent on the hidden influence of commercial insurers on increasing health care costs for patients,” Smith said.
RAND reminded readers: “Spending on hospital services accounted for 42 percent of total U.S. personal health care spending for privately insured people in 2022.”
