HEALTHCARE MARKETS
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 …
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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 …
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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 …
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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 …
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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 …
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Spotlight on State: Pennsylvania
Amy Y. Gu, Managing Editor October 5, 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 Pennsylvania page. Pennsylvania is a leader in antitrust enforcement of its healthcare provider market with a robust set of review protocol for nonprofit hospital transactions. The state attorney general has oversight authority which requires notice of all nonprofit health entity transactions with review and based on consideration of public interest and antitrust implications. …
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Spotlight on State: Idaho
Hannah Park, Student Fellow October 4, 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 Idaho page. Idaho has stepped up its efforts to promote price transparency and control healthcare costs in recent legislative sessions. Signed into law in 2020, the Idaho Patient Act adds transparency to the medical billing process and protects consumers from unfair medical debt collection practices. The state legislature also made a notable effort …
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The Source Roundup: October 2021 Edition
Hannah Park, Student Fellow October 1, 2021
This month, we are pleased to highlight two recent publications co-authored by health policy researchers from The Source. We specifically examine articles and reports discussing market consolidation including 1) viable practices state policymakers can implement to address provider market power, 2) a critical look at legislation targeting concentrated markets, 3) statistical reports analyzing health insurance market consolidation, and 4) a study on the quality of care in post-merger rural hospitals. In addition, we cover articles that examine public option health plans recently enacted in some states, proposals to improve compliance …
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Spotlight on State: Hawaii
Hannah Park, Student Fellow September 29, 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 Hawaii page. Hawaii promotes price transparency by maintaining an All-Payer Claims Database, which collects healthcare claims data from commercial payers, Medicaid, and Medicare. Hawaii also continues to use the Hawaii Health Information Exchange, the state’s private sector non-profit designee for the receipt of federal funds to create a statewide health information exchange that will ultimately …
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Spotlight on State: Delaware
Hannah Park, Student Fellow and Amy Y. Gu, Managing Editor September 21, 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 Delaware page. Delaware has a long legislative history in healthcare price transparency initiatives. Delaware legislators have authorized the Delaware Health Information Network to develop a centralized health care claims database since 2016. The Delaware Health Care Claims Database collects healthcare claims, enrollment, and provider data from Medicare, Medicaid, and the seven largest commercial health …
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