Anthony T. LoSasso (
Kevin Toczydlowski, DePaul University.
Health Aff (Millwood). 2023 May;42(5):615-621. doi: 10.1377/hlthaff.2022.01184.
The extent to which concentration in the health insurance market affects negotiated prices paid to hospitals is of high interest to policy makers. We examined the association between insurer market share and hospital prices, using a new source of data obtained through the federal Hospital Price Transparency initiative. We found that the market-leading insurer in the least competitive (most concentrated) insurance markets pays 15 percent less to hospitals than the market-leading insurer in the most competitive (least concentrated) markets. We also found the price relationship to be more pronounced for for-profit hospitals than for not-for-profit hospitals. Our results invite the question of whether dominant insurers are passing savings on to employers in the form of lower premiums.
保险公司市场份额与医院价格之间的关系是政策制定者非常关注的问题。我们利用联邦医院价格透明度计划获得的新数据源，考察了医疗保险市场集中程度对医院价格的影响。研究发现，在竞争最不激烈（最集中）的保险市场中占据主导地位的保险公司向医院支付的费用比在竞争最激烈（最不集中）的市场中占据主导地位的保险公司低 15%。我们还发现，对于营利性医院来说，这种价格关系比非营利性医院更为明显。我们的研究结果提出了这样一个问题，即主导保险公司是否以较低保费的形式将节省的费用转嫁给了雇主。
