Greenbeard
Gold Member
Nice piece in Stateline earlier this week on the all-payer rate-setting system that determines hospital rates in Maryland:
Mostly reiterates the Wall Street Journal piece from a few years ago that I've posted before ("Maryland Reins In Hospital Costs by Setting Rates "), though the WSJ piece had a handy graphic on hospital markups:
For more than 30 years, Maryland has regulated the rates hospitals can charge, while all 49 other states have relied on market mechanisms to keep prices in check. For the most part, it has worked. The urban hospitals that serve large numbers of uninsured Maryland patients are financially strong, instead of nearly bankrupt like most inner-city hospitals. And everyone private insurers, the uninsured, and those on Medicaid and Medicareis charged the same amount.
Maryland has the lowest price in the country for average hospital cases a little more than $13,000, compared to a national average of $32,500. The cost of health insurance in Maryland is second lowest in the nation as a percentage of median income. [...]
A regulatory approach works in Maryland partly because all stakeholders hospitals, doctors and patients have bought into it. Carmela Coyle, president of the Maryland Hospital Association, says the states hospitals strongly support the system and work closely with Murrays 29-person regulatory staff on a daily basis. Its equitable and predictable, she says, and it ensures that everyone has access to high quality hospitals. Facilities in poor areas of Baltimore, for example, do not suffer disproportionate financial burdens.
Mostly reiterates the Wall Street Journal piece from a few years ago that I've posted before ("Maryland Reins In Hospital Costs by Setting Rates "), though the WSJ piece had a handy graphic on hospital markups: