Academic Articles & Reports Roundup
The Source Roundup: June 2023 Edition
Stephen Cosenza, Student Fellow June 1, 2023
In the past month, newly released publications have chronicled how partnerships, alternative payment models, and insurer market power affect competition and consolidation. Separately, researchers examined Affordable Care Act developments in terms of its impact on coverage and costs of health care. Moreover, as more and more price data are made publicly available, researchers studied how that data is presented, utilized, and what is reveals. Competition and Consolidation Since 2005, over 190 rural hospitals have closed across the US, and today, 600 more (the nearly one third that remain) are …
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The Source Roundup: May 2023 Edition
Rachel Ng, Student Fellow May 1, 2023
As we prepare to transition to the summer, this month is an opportune time to examine the impacts of potentially a new season in the health care market. Researchers noted that not only is there a rise of geographically distant mergers even as rural hospitals struggle to maintain profitability, but also that private equity is a new major financier of the health care market. On the other hand, California hopes to increase competition with Golden Choice, a state-run public option. Federally, price transparency efforts could be a step towards creating …
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The Source Roundup: April 2023 Edition
Rachel Ng, Student Fellow April 3, 2023
With the healthcare market at the most consolidated it has ever been, both federal and state action is needed to ensure health care systems provide high-quality, affordable care that is accessible. In this month’s roundup, we begin with several publications authored by The Source team on the ramifications of consolidation and the role of federal and state antitrust enforcers. Researchers also considered whether health care providers and insurers have returned to pre-pandemic performance levels. With the rise of health care spending and health care costs, understanding these trends becomes especially …
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The Source Roundup: March 2023 Edition
Rachel Ng, Student Fellow March 1, 2023
This month’s Roundup focuses on articles and reports examining price transparency efforts at both the state and federal levels as well as new recommendations for policymakers on effective healthcare cost containment strategies. States continue to address the lack of knowledge available to the public with all-payer claims databases. Federally, the implementation of new price transparency rules requiring reporting from health care providers and insurers have been examined for compliance and limitations. In addition to price transparency, to get to the bottom of healthcare affordability concerns, researchers and experts are suggesting …
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The Source Roundup: February 2023 Edition
Rachel Ng, Student Fellow February 1, 2023
Articles and reports published in the first month of 2023 saw an increased focus on the impact of consolidation as well as private equity investment in health care. Researchers also continued to examine factors impacting health care pricing and explored potential policy options available to the states to address provider prices, including a specific call for legislative intervention in the Western Pennsylvania market. Healthcare Consolidation Recent years saw an interesting shift in healthcare consolidation: mergers and acquisitions are becoming increasingly low-volume but high-value and cross-market. In Kaufman Hall’s report …
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The Source Roundup: January 2023 Edition
Amy Y. Gu, Managing Editor January 3, 2023
Happy New Year, Source Readers! We kick off 2023 with highlights of some reports and articles that you may have missed from December. In surprise billing protection efforts, the implementation of the No Surprises Act is hitting unexpected backlogs in the IDR process, while the loophole of ground ambulance surprise bills also warrants further policy attention. Reports on healthcare spending and out-of-pocket costs suggest that healthcare is becoming less affordable as out-of-pocket costs continued to rise. Lastly, a pair of studies on value-based payment models reveal flaws in the systems …
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The Source Roundup: December 2022 Edition
Rachel Ng, Student Fellow December 1, 2022
As the end of the year approaches, there’s no better time to catch up and reflect upon new research and findings from the past year. The articles and reports in this month’s Roundup examine the latest trends in consolidation including (1) the rise of cross-market hospital systems and (2) concentration in the insurance markets. We also highlight articles that explored (3) the current state and future of telehealth regulation and (4) quality impact for hospitals that switch to a value based payment model. Consolidation and Competition Although 2022 has …
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The Source Roundup: November 2022 Edition
Rachel Ng, Student Fellow and Amy Y. Gu, Managing Editor November 1, 2022
In this month’s Roundup, we highlight some noteworthy articles and reports that discuss 1) state options for provider rate regulation and their potential pitfalls such as regulatory failure and regulatory capture; 2) consolidation trends in the hospital market and pharmaceutical industry; 3) price transparency efforts including compliance with the hospital and insurer transparency rules and the state-federal partnership to implement the No Surprises Act; and 4) drivers of national health spending. Provider Rate Regulation With the rapid consolidation of health care providers and highly concentrated insurance markets, consumer bargaining …
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The Source Roundup: October 2022 Edition
Amy Y. Gu, Managing Editor October 3, 2022
Fall is upon us, and the time is better than ever to sip on a cup of tea (or coffee) and catch up on some of the latest articles and reports! In this month’s Source Roundup, we cover a variety of topics in healthcare price and competition. First, we shine the spotlight on the rise in private equity acquisitions, particularly of physician practices and ambulatory surgical centers, and highlight some of the latest studies that examine the implications of these acquisitions on healthcare cost and spending, utilization, and quality. Second, …
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The Source Roundup: September 2022 Edition
Enne Mae Guerrero, Graduate Research Fellow September 1, 2022
In this month’s Source Roundup, we start out with the latest articles and reports that examine consolidation and lack of competition in the healthcare markets, specifically 1) the impact of certificate of public advantage legislation and 2) the impact of dialysis consolidation on Medicare Advantage beneficiaries. We also highlight a few articles discussing healthcare prices and costs, including 3) the impact of inflation on the healthcare sector, 4) the divergence in cost growth between Medicare and the private insurance sector, and 5) factors that cause health spending to rise in …
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