Rising healthcare prices in the U.S. are leading employers outside the healthcare sector to reduce their payroll and decrease their number of employees, according to a new study conducted by a team of leading economists from Yale, the University of Chicago, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Harvard University, the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS), and the U.S. Department of the Treasury.
WSJ: When Hospital Prices Go Up, Local Economies Take a Hit
Rising healthcare prices have long eroded American wages. They are doing that by eating into jobs.
Companies shed workers in the year after local hospitals raise their prices, new research found. Higher hospital prices pushed up premiums for employees’ health insurance, which businesses help pay for.
'It isn't normal to operate the way they do': U.S. Senators condemn healthcare's resistance to price transparency
If consumers or business departments received a major charge on their monthly statements with no pricing breakdown or itemized receipts, many would demand more information if not outright refuse to pay.
But that’s not the case in healthcare, where unexpected fees billed from insurers and hospitals and multiplicative markups are delivered after the fact and with little explanation.
“Combatting health care costs through transparency is something that Republicans and Democrats agree on.
President Trump put in place regulations requiring hospitals and insurers to disclose prices, and President Biden has continued to support it.
Today I am releasing a new report that highlights the need for Congress to enact additional transparency across the health care supply chain.
Congress needs to ensure that every American seeking health care will know the price up front”
Price transparency is critical to fix nation’s health care model, Brown University scholar tells Congress
“It’s important to recognize that price transparency is not a cure-all for the health care system, but rather is critical to improve the efficiency and regulatory oversight of health care markets in United States,” said Christopher Whaley, an associate professor of health care policy at the Brown University School of Public Health.
Bloomberg Law: Health Plan Cost Control Suits Ramp Up as Pricing Data Revealed
Failing to pursue the cost data from insurance companies and other service providers can amount to a breach of fiduciary duty for employers, said Jonathan Levitt, co-founding partner of Frier Levitt.
“Those employers that are suing to find out data, they’re not being overly aggressive,” he said. “I think they’re setting a new standard.”