Issue 12

NASHP Healthcare Policy & Cost Resources
NASHP offers resources for employers exploring innovative strategies to address health care costs. Resources include reference-based pricing to Medicare resources, a Hospital Cost Tool, anti-competitive health plan contracts model legislation, state prescription drug purchasing pool buy-in model legislation, and an overview of additional cost-containment efforts and opportunities..

• Toolkit: Addressing Health Care Costs – Tools for State Employee Health Plan

Hospitals Respond to Bray, Huston’s Call for Action to Lower Health Care Costs
In December 2021, House Speaker Todd Huston (R-Fishers) and Senate President Pro Tem Rodric Bray (R-Martinsville) sent a joint letter to presidents and CEOs of the state’s health insurance carriers and nonprofit health care systems requesting they work together to present a plan, by April 1, 2022, to lower hospital prices to the national average by January 1, 2025.

• Read the responses from hospitals and insurers, along with the original press announcement and letters.

Op-Ed: Lilly CEO: Indiana must improve education, reduce health care costs to stay competitive (IBJ)
In an April 20, 2022, op-ed, Lilly’s CEO David Ricks discusses plans to invest more than $3 billion in new factories and research laboratories outside of Indiana due to state being “behind the curve” in certain areas, including education, green energy, workforce development, inclusion of minorities and immigrants, and the affordability of healthcare. He noted that the high cost of healthcare is heavily shouldered by employers, and that Indiana’s high rate of chronic illness and mortality can make companies leery about investing.

• Read the full story

Patient Rights Advocate released their Semi-Annual Hospital Price Transparency Compliance Report in February 2022 which assessed hospitals’ performance in relation to the federal hospital price transparency rule. 1,000 hospitals were reviewed and below are high level results:

Indiana Results (32 hospitals assessed)

• 21.9% were fully compliant with the price transparency rule
• The seven hospitals found to be fully compliant with the rule are: Franciscan Health Indianapolis, Indiana University Health Medical Center, IU Health University Hospital, Northwest Health – La Porte, Northwest Health – Porter, Northwest Health – Starke, and Union Hospital

National Results (1,000 hospitals assessed)

• 14.7% were fully compliant with the price transparency rule
• Only 0.5% of the hospitals owned by the three largest hospital systems in the country were fully compliant (HCA Healthcare, CommonSpirit Health, and Ascension)
• 85.7% of the hospitals did not post a complete machine-readable file of standard charges
• 28.7% of the hospitals presented 300 shoppable services in a consumer-friendly display for customary charges, but 216 of these hospitals remain noncompliant because their standard charges files were incomplete

This assessment echoed the results of a similar assessment EFI published September 2021.

EFI In the News

Tackling High Health Care Prices: A Look at Four Purchaser-Led Efforts (Commonwealth Fund)

UNSUSTAINABLE: State lawmakers push health care industry to lower its prices (Goshen News)

Hospitals’ indifference on cost containment apparent (The Journal Gazette)

Lawmakers urge health care to lower prices (Tribune-Star)

…find more articles in the News section of the Forum website.

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COVID-19

CDC Launches New Center for Forecasting and Outbreak Analytics (CDC)

Once again, U.S. faces another COVID-19 surge as cases rise nationally (PBS)

COVID-19 cases to jump 94% by April 30 + 2 more forecasts (Becker’s Hospital Review)

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Employers and Insurers

Chasing Smokestacks isn’t working for Hoosiers (The Country Economist)

Press Release: Anthem, Inc. Announces Intent for Corporate Rebranding (Anthem, Inc.)

Hospital Prices: Unsustainable and Unjustifiable (32BJ Health Fund)

More insurers cut payment for patient consultations (Modern Healthcare)

UnitedHealth to buy home health business LHC for $5.4B (Healthcare Dive)

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Healthcare

Video: Rebuilding Public Trust in the Healthcare System (TEDx)

The burden of medical debt in the United States (Peterson-KFF)

Many households do not have enough money to pay cost-sharing in typical private health plans (Peterson-KFF)

States Move to Protect Hospital Patients from Heavy Medical Debt (WSJ)

How has U.S. spending on healthcare changed over time? (Peterson-KFF)

10 top-earning states for physicians (Becker’s Hospital Review)

Primary care investment could improve outcomes and lower costs, study finds (Modern Healthcare)

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Hospitals

Michael Hicks: Hospitals to Legislature: Drop Dead (The Star Press)

‘Hoosiers are rightfully frustrated’: Health care execs offer no clear plan to lower costs (Indy Star)

Hoosier employers bear burden of high hospital costs (The Shelbyville News)

Op-Ed: Bloated healthcare prices will increase with industry in charge of cost reductions (Indy Star)

Hospital at home playbook: Lessons from Mayo Clinic, Michigan Medicine and Presbyterian Health (Becker’s Hospital Review)

Hospitals are back in the hot seat for their prices (Axios)

Financial challenges plague rural hospitals, including in Indiana (IBJ)

Partners in affordability: Hospitals aggressively pursue cost savings (The Journal Gazette)

Indiana House speaker: $416M ‘gift’ from IU Health to IU ‘raises eyebrows and speculation’ (Herald-Times)

Nonprofit hospitals’ community benefits should square with their tax exemptions. They often don’t (Stat)

Financial challenges plague rural hospitals, including in Indiana (IBJ)

Hospitals’ massive cancer drug markups (Axios)