Dive Brief:
- The Niagara Health Quality Coalition has released the first regional ranking of what commercial health insurance companies pay for their customers' medical care.
- It found extreme cost variations around the country, with low- and high-cost regions that don't correspond with the low- and high-cost regions for Medicare.
- The coalition reports a 29% spending difference between the lowest-cost region (Honolulu, HI) and the highest-cost region (Santa Cruz, CA).
Dive Insight:
The study notes that cost variations exist even when comparisons are adjusted for customers' age, gender and health status—but that many of the reasons for the existance of those variations are still unexplained. Factors that are well understood include geographic variation in the use of post-hospital services, as well as differences in the negotiating power of health insurers and providers in different markets.
Of the 274 regions reviewed in the report, the 10 reported as most costly are: Santa Cruz, CA, Huntington, WV, Charleston, WV, Gulfport, MS, Wausau, WI, Contra Costa County, CA, Green Bay, WI, Anchorage, AK, Sacramento, CA, and Marshfield, WI.
The 10 reported as least costly are: Honolulu, HI, Buffalo, NY, the Bronx, Rochester, NY, Tacoma Park, MD, Dubuque, IA, Tucson, AZ, Washington, DC, Baltimore, MD and Dearborn, MI.