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Here’s what hospitals’ & insurers’ Q2 earnings say about where healthcare spending is headed

Analysts who fear health spending is accelerating got plenty of evidence in Wall Street’s second-quarter results to support their thesis. But so did folks who hope spending is still under control. Now everybody’s trying to sort out the mixed message. The answer matters because deficit debates and affordability concerns revolve around forecasts that health spending will […]

Hospitals

Debating the value of an all-payer claims database

Nearly a decade before the Affordable Care Act, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and a few other states began creating all-payer claims databases (APCDs).  Acting as trusted third parties, they required all commercial insurance carriers within their borders to hand over their claims data, including the prices paid. In the last three years, the number of […]

Hospitals

Top insurers and drugmakers spar over pricey cancer treatments

Some cancer patients and their insurers are seeing their bills for chemotherapy jump sharply, reflecting increased drug prices and hospitals’ push to buy oncologists’ practices and then bill at higher rates. Patients say, “‘I’ve been treated with Herceptin for breast cancer for several years and it was always $5,000 for the drug and suddenly it’s […]