Dec. 8 Event: Unpacking the Prescription Drug Provisions of the Build Back Better Act
As the Build Back Better Act shifts from the House to the Senate, there’s considerable interest in provisions that would lower the cost of prescription drugs.
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Web Event: Rx Drugs and the U.S. Health System – A Conversation About Drug Prices
Event Date:EventThe Kaiser Family Foundation will host a web conversation to discuss the drivers of recent and forecasted trends in prescription drug spending and examine how drug prices are set.
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Web Event: Rx Drugs and the U.S. Health System: A Conversation about Medicare Prescription Drug Costs
Event Date:EventOn Wednesday, September 7, from noon to 1 p.m. ET, the Kaiser Family Foundation hosted a web conversation to discuss trends in Medicare prescription drug spending, as well as proposals to reduce costs and forecasts of what beneficiaries can expect in coming years.
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Web Event: Rx Drugs and the U.S. Health System – A Conversation about Election-Cycle Proposals for Lowering Costs
Event Date:EventOn Wednesday, October 5, from noon to 1 p.m. ET, the Kaiser Family Foundation will host a web conversation to discuss proposals for controlling prescription drug costs, examine pros and cons of the ideas, and assess the likelihood that the plans will be enacted.
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Half of All Hospitals Have Charity Care Costs That Represent 1.4% or Less of Their Operating Expenses
News ReleaseHalf of hospitals reported that the cost of providing charity care to patients represented 1.4% or less of their operating expenses in 2020, though the rates vary widely from hospital to hospital, a new KFF analysis finds.
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Ongoing Challenges with Hospital Price Transparency
Issue BriefThis analysis examines transparency data currently shared by hospitals to comply with federal law and finds that they are messy, inconsistent and confusing, making it challenging if not impossible for patients or researchers to use them to compare prices. Many of these shortcomings stem from a lack of specificity in the requirements for what hospitals must report.
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Analysis: Inconsistencies Within Hospital Price Transparency Data Make Cost Comparisons Difficult
News ReleaseSince 2021, federal law has required hospitals to publicly post information about their standard prices and negotiated discount rates for common health services to encourage consumers to compare prices and to promote competition.
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Prices Increased Faster Than Inflation for Half of all Drugs Covered by Medicare in 2020
Issue BriefRecent legislation would require drug companies to pay rebates to the federal government when annual increases in prescription drug prices for Medicare and private insurance exceed the rate of inflation. As context for understanding the possible impact of this proposal, this analysis compares price changes for drugs covered by Medicare Part B (administered by physicians) and Part D (retail prescription drugs) between 2019 and 2020 to the inflation rate over the same period.
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Sizing Up Exchange Market Competition
Issue BriefThis issue brief offers an early look into how competitive the health insurance exchanges (also called marketplaces) are under the Affordable Care Act in selected states. Through analysis of enrollment data released by seven states (California, Connecticut, Minnesota, New York, Nevada, Rhode Island, and Washington) this brief finds that exchange markets in California and New York are shaping up to be more competitive than their individual markets were in 2012 while those of Connecticut and Washington show less competition (less even market share distribution). In several states, market concentration of individual insurers have shifted significantly compared to the individual market prior to the ACA, pointing to the potential for greater price competition in the future and the influence of new entrants to the market.
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Why Data on Health-Care Price Variation Doesn’t Itself Solve the Problem
News ReleaseIn his latest column for The Wall Street Journal's Think Tank, Drew Altman discusses a new Blue Cross Blue Shield Association report on “extreme price variation” in health care services and the limits of consumer information as a solution to the problem. All previous columns by Drew Altman are available online.