Blog
Mining Audited Financial Statements to Better Assess Health System Financial Strength and Inform Policy Decisions
Guest Author October 28, 2021
By: Robert A. Berenson, M.D. The lead story in the October 5, 2021 issue of the Washington Post regarding hospital finances during the coronavirus pandemic highlighted an American Hospital Association spokesperson’s recent assertion that “the delta variant has wreaked havoc on hospitals and health systems.” The article explained that staff shortages were raising staff salaries substantially, leading to “excess labor costs,” which, in combination with a new round of deferred elective procedures during the most recent surge of the delta variant, has reduced hospital profit margins and cash flow. …
Continue Reading Download PDF
Spotlight on State: Missouri
Hannah Park, Student Fellow October 26, 2021
This is part of a series of summaries that highlight notable legislation and initiatives in health policy and reform of all 50 states. Check back on The Source as we roll out additional states each week. See Missouri page. Missouri has long recognized the benefits of telehealth in increasing access to healthcare. To encourage providers to adopt telehealth services, the state has passed parity laws requiring health plans to provide coverage and reimbursement for telehealth services at the same basis and rate as they would for in-person services. Access to …
Continue Reading Download PDF
Spotlight on State: Mississippi
Hannah Park, Student Fellow and Amy Y. Gu, Managing Editor October 25, 2021
This is part of a series of summaries that highlight notable legislation and initiatives in health policy and reform of all 50 states. Check back on The Source as we roll out additional states each week. See Mississippi page. Mississippi has been active in promoting telehealth services, as one of the first states to enact parity laws for telehealth services in the state. Since before the COVID-19 pandemic, the state has had comprehensive parity laws that require health plans to cover and reimburse telehealth services on the same basis and …
Continue Reading Download PDF
Webinar Recording Available: State Approaches to Mitigating Health Provider Consolidation and Its Effects on Prices
Amy Y. Gu, Managing Editor October 21, 2021
On October 21, the Milbank Memorial Fund and the Source on Healthcare Price and Competition hosted a webinar on steps that states are taking to foster more competitive health care markets and lower health care prices, featuring The Source Senior Health Policy Researcher Katie Gudiksen and state regulators from Connecticut and Oregon. The recording is now available to watch for free: Watch Recording Download Powerpoint Presentation (Katie Gudiksen) For more information, check out the 3-part Milbank Memorial Bank series authored by the Source team. The first brief called for collaboration of state and …
Continue Reading Download PDF
Spotlight on State: Oklahoma
Amy Y. Gu, Managing Editor October 20, 2021
This is part of a series of summaries that highlight notable legislation and initiatives in health policy and reform of all 50 states. Check back on The Source as we roll out additional states each week. See Oklahoma page. Oklahoma operates a volunteer all-payer claims database. Approximately 1 million people’s claims are in this database, accounting for about 25% of Oklahoma’s total population. The legislature also introduced legislation to promote price transparency and cost containment in recent terms, including protection against surprise billing and a Right to Shop program that …
Continue Reading Download PDF
Spotlight on State: Louisiana
Hannah Park, Student Fellow October 18, 2021
This is part of a series of summaries that highlight notable legislation and initiatives in health policy and reform of all 50 states. Check back on The Source as we roll out additional states each week. See Louisiana page. Louisiana has been active in legislative efforts to promote price transparency in health care. In recent terms, the state legislature introduced bills to tackle surprise billing by out-of-network specialists, proposing that patients should only be responsible for deductibles and copayment amounts that they would under the in-network terms of their insurance …
Continue Reading Download PDF
California Attorney General Imposes Conditions of Price Cap and Prohibition of Anticompetitive Practices on Cross-Market Acquisition in Northern California
Amy Y. Gu, Managing Editor October 14, 2021
California is one of the leading states in healthcare antitrust enforcement. Following the footsteps of former California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, who led the antitrust lawsuit against northern California hospital giant Sutter Health, the new attorney general Rob Bonta continues to exercise the AG’s expansive authority with aggressive enforcement actions in the California provider market. Earlier in the summer, the AG’s office settled a lawsuit filed by Cedars-Sinai Health System and Huntington Memorial Hospital, with revised competitive impact conditions on the cross-market affiliation in Southern California to address potential harms …
Continue Reading Download PDF
Spotlight on State: Iowa
Hannah Park, Student Fellow October 8, 2021
This is part of a series of summaries that highlight notable legislation and initiatives in health policy and reform of all 50 states. Check back on The Source as we roll out additional states each week. See Iowa page. Iowa has been active in introducing state market initiatives as part of the state’s healthcare reform efforts. In 2019, legislators pursued a bill establishing a single-payer system for the state. The proposed system, called the Healthy Iowa Program, would have provided comprehensive universal single-payer healthcare coverage and a healthcare cost control …
Continue Reading Download PDF
Join a Webinar on State Approaches to Mitigating Health Provider Consolidation and Its Effects on Prices
Amy Y. Gu, Managing Editor October 7, 2021
Increasingly, hospitals have merged to form dominant health systems that can exert market power and charge anticompetitive prices that increase health care prices and burden the economy. A recent series of Milbank Memorial Fund issue briefs by researchers from the Source for Healthcare Price on Competition identified specific state policies and practices that can deter health care provider concentration, including improved merger review, oversight of anticompetitive conduct, and bans on potentially anticompetitive contract terms that apply to health insurers and providers. On October 21 at 3 p.m., ET, the Milbank …
Continue Reading Download PDF
Spotlight on State: Kentucky
Hannah Park, Student Fellow October 6, 2021
This is part of a series of summaries that highlight notable legislation and initiatives in health policy and reform of all 50 states. Check back on The Source as we roll out additional states each week. See Kentucky page. The Kentucky legislature has consistently pursued legislation aimed at improving access to healthcare price information to help rein in costs. In recent terms, Kentucky has enacted a number of legislation pertaining to prescription drug cost transparency, with particular focus on pharmacy benefit managers, including a law that prohibits PBMs from requiring …
Continue Reading Download PDF