IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/27490.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Variation in Health Care Prices Across Public and Private Payers

Author

Listed:
  • Toren L. Fronsdal
  • Jay Bhattacharya
  • Suzanne Tamang

Abstract

We study a unique all-payer data set spanning 38 states to examine the differences in inpatient reimbursement rates paid by traditional Medicare (TM), Medicare Advantage (MA), Medicaid, and private (under-65) insurers, and the differences in negotiated rates across the 60 largest private insurers. After controlling for enrollee and hospital mix, we find that private insurers pay 37 percent more than TM, and MA pays 10 percent more than TM for the five most common inpatient diagnoses. The correlation in risk-adjusted payments by private insurers and by TM at the same hospital for the same diagnosis is only 0.10. There is significant variation in negotiated prices within and across private payers. Among the five largest US insurers, the most expensive insurer negotiates prices that are 5-26 percent higher than the mean price for the 20 most common inpatient diagnoses. Additionally, we find a 10 percent increase in insurer market share corresponds to a 7 percent decrease in inpatient negotiated prices and a 10 percent decrease in the standard deviation of prices. This finding suggests that increased insurer market power allows payers to negotiate prospective payment contracts – rather than the more common fee-for-service payments – thereby offloading financial risk to providers.

Suggested Citation

  • Toren L. Fronsdal & Jay Bhattacharya & Suzanne Tamang, 2020. "Variation in Health Care Prices Across Public and Private Payers," NBER Working Papers 27490, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:27490
    Note: AG EH IO
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w27490.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Robert Town & Roger Feldman & John Kralewski, 2011. "Market power and contract form: evidence from physician group practices," International Journal of Health Economics and Management, Springer, vol. 11(2), pages 115-132, June.
    2. Stuart V. Craig & Keith Marzilli Ericson & Amanda Starc, 2018. "How Important Is Price Variation Between Health Insurers?," NBER Working Papers 25190, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Jeffrey Clemens & Joshua D. Gottlieb, 2017. "In the Shadow of a Giant: Medicare’s Influence on Private Physician Payments," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 125(1), pages 1-39.
    4. Moriya, Asako S. & Vogt, William B. & Gaynor, Martin, 2010. "Hospital prices and market structure in the hospital and insurance industries," Health Economics, Policy and Law, Cambridge University Press, vol. 5(4), pages 459-479, October.
    5. Mark V. Pauly & Thomas G. Mcguire & Pedro P. Barros (ed.), 2011. "Handbook of Health Economics," Handbook of Health Economics, Elsevier, volume 2, number 2.
    6. Congressional Budget Office, 2013. "A Premium Support System for Medicare: Analysis of Illustrative Options," Reports 44581, Congressional Budget Office.
    7. Clemens, Jeffrey & Gottlieb, Joshua D. & Molnár, Tímea Laura, 2017. "Do health insurers innovate? Evidence from the anatomy of physician payments," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 153-167.
    8. Vilsa Curto & Liran Einav & Amy Finkelstein & Jonathan Levin & Jay Bhattacharya, 2019. "Health Care Spending and Utilization in Public and Private Medicare," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 11(2), pages 302-332, April.
    9. Staten, Michael & Dunkelberg, William & Umbeck, John, 1987. "Market share and the illusion of power : Can blue cross force hospitals to discount?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 6(1), pages 43-58, March.
    10. Congressional Budget Office, 2013. "A Premium Support System for Medicare: Analysis of Illustrative Options," Reports 44581, Congressional Budget Office.
    11. Congressional Budget Office, 2013. "A Premium Support System for Medicare: Analysis of Illustrative Options," Reports 44581, Congressional Budget Office.
    12. David M. Cutler & Mark McClellan & Joseph P. Newhouse, 2000. "How Does Managed Care Do It?," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 31(3), pages 526-548, Autumn.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Anderson, David M. & Hoagland, Alex & Zhu, Ed, 2024. "Medical bill shock and imperfect moral hazard," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 236(C).
    2. Yuanyuan Deng & Hugo Benítez-Silva, 2021. "An Empirical Model of Medicare Costs: The Role of Health Insurance, Employment, and Delays in Medicare Enrollment," Econometrics, MDPI, vol. 9(2), pages 1-32, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Martin Gaynor & Kate Ho & Robert J. Town, 2015. "The Industrial Organization of Health-Care Markets," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 53(2), pages 235-284, June.
    2. Jonathan Gruber, 2017. "Delivering Public Health Insurance through Private Plan Choice in the United States," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 31(4), pages 3-22, Fall.
    3. Vilsa Curto & Liran Einav & Amy Finkelstein & Jonathan Levin & Jay Bhattacharya, 2019. "Health Care Spending and Utilization in Public and Private Medicare," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 11(2), pages 302-332, April.
    4. Zack Cooper & Stuart V Craig & Martin Gaynor & John Van Reenen, 2019. "The Price Ain’t Right? Hospital Prices and Health Spending on the Privately Insured," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 134(1), pages 51-107.
    5. Craig, Stuart V. & Ericson, Keith Marzilli & Starc, Amanda, 2021. "How important is price variation between health insurers?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    6. Andrew Stocking & James Baumgardner & Melinda Buntin & Anna Cook, 2014. "Examining the Number of Competitors and the Cost of Medicare Part D: Working Paper 2014-04," Working Papers 45553, Congressional Budget Office.
    7. Laurence Baker & M. Kate Bundorf & Aileen Devlin & Daniel P. Kessler, 2019. "Why Don't Commercial Health Plans Use Prospective Payment?," American Journal of Health Economics, MIT Press, vol. 5(4), pages 465-480, Fall.
    8. Gaynor, Martin & Town, Robert J., 2011. "Competition in Health Care Markets," Handbook of Health Economics, in: Mark V. Pauly & Thomas G. Mcguire & Pedro P. Barros (ed.), Handbook of Health Economics, volume 2, chapter 0, pages 499-637, Elsevier.
    9. Daria Pelech, 2018. "An Analysis of Private-Sector Prices for Physicians’ Services: Working Paper 2018-01," Working Papers 53441, Congressional Budget Office.
    10. Liran Einav & Amy Finkelstein & Yunan Ji & Neale Mahoney, 2020. "Randomized trial shows healthcare payment reform has equal-sized spillover effects on patients not targeted by reform," Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 117(32), pages 18939-18947, August.
    11. Stuart V. Craig & Keith Marzilli Ericson & Amanda Starc, 2018. "How Important Is Price Variation Between Health Insurers?," NBER Working Papers 25190, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Moiz Bhai & Danny Hughes, 2024. "Estimating Self-Selection in Medicare Advantage," Working Papers 2024-009, Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group.
    13. David Dranove & Christopher Ody & Amanda Starc, 2021. "A Dose of Managed Care: Controlling Drug Spending in Medicaid," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 13(1), pages 170-197, January.
    14. Cook, Amanda & Averett, Susan, 2020. "Do hospitals respond to changing incentive structures? Evidence from Medicare’s 2007 DRG restructuring," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    15. Pelech, Daria, 2017. "Dropped out or pushed out? Insurance market exit and provider market power in Medicare Advantage," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 98-112.
    16. Abe Dunn & Joshua D Gottlieb & Adam Hale Shapiro & Daniel J Sonnenstuhl & Pietro Tebaldi, 2024. "A Denial a Day Keeps the Doctor Away," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 139(1), pages 187-233.
    17. Lee, Ajin & Vabson, Boris, 2024. "The value of improving insurance quality: Evidence from long-run Medicaid attrition," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    18. Leemore Dafny & Mark Duggan & Subramaniam Ramanarayanan, 2012. "Paying a Premium on Your Premium? Consolidation in the US Health Insurance Industry," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 102(2), pages 1161-1185, April.
    19. Jeffrey Clemens & Joshua D. Gottlieb, 2017. "In the Shadow of a Giant: Medicare’s Influence on Private Physician Payments," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 125(1), pages 1-39.
    20. Abe Dunn & Adam Hale Shapiro, 2018. "Physician Competition and the Provision of Care: Evidence from Heart Attacks," American Journal of Health Economics, MIT Press, vol. 4(2), pages 226-261, Spring.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • G22 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Insurance; Insurance Companies; Actuarial Studies
    • I11 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Analysis of Health Care Markets
    • I13 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Insurance, Public and Private

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:27490. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/nberrus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.