Center for Advancing Health Policy through Research

State Policies to Enhance Competition and Affordability

Many U.S. states are enacting their own efforts to enhance the accessibility, quality, fairness, and affordability of health care.

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These policies include:

  • surprise billing protections
  • health insurance exchange oversight
  • health price transparency tools
  • policies on competition and consolidation
  • price limits for medical services

However, the impact of these policy innovations and the specific design features that drive success or failure are not yet clear. CAHPR researchers are studying the effectiveness of various state policies on prices, spending, utilization, as well as on health care labor. These findings have the potential to provide guidance to other states considering similar approaches to regulate health care prices.

Hospital Payment Cap Simulator

The Hospital Payment Cap Simulator provides anyone from policymakers to researchers with insights into how much state employee plans across the US could save from hospital payment caps and the impact on commercial hospital operating margins. Read the instructions below to learn how to use the tool.

Click here to visit the Simulator

Recent News
Rhode Island Current

Hospital price growth cap helped lower insurance premiums, Brown study shows

This article reports on a study by CAHPR researchers that found that Rhode Island’s 2010 hospital price growth cap significantly reduced hospital prices and lowered premiums for fully insured health plans by $1,000 per member annually by 2022. However, the policy had limited impact on the self-insured market due to federal ERISA regulations, and the resulting hospital revenue losses have raised concerns about financial sustainability and care quality.
Las Vegas Review Journal

Bill would limit hospital fees in Nevada’s public employee health system

A Nevada bill aims to cap hospital fees for the Public Employees’ Benefits Program to reduce costs, drawing on Oregon's model, which researcher Roslyn Murray of Brown University studied and found led to significant savings without shifting costs to private insurers.
Times Union

NY hospital prices four times higher than doctor's offices, report finds

This article talks about the analysis conducted by CAHPR researchers who find that routine medical care costs four times more in New York’s outpatient hospital facilities than in doctor’s offices, largely due to added facility fees. Economist Christopher Whaley and other experts have long highlighted such pricing disparities, fueling legislative efforts like the proposed Fair Pricing Act to cap these costs.
KFF

Indiana Governor Appoints Business Leader To Shake Up Health Care

Gloria Sachdev has spent years challenging high hospital prices in Indiana, successfully pushing for healthcare cost transparency and legislative reforms. Her efforts, have led to a national report on hospital pricing and significant policy changes in the state.
Modern Healthcare

Hospitals cry foul as public option enrollment rises

This article covers a Brown University study, published in Health Affairs, which found that the Colorado Option lowered average marketplace premiums by $101 per month since 2020, while exchange premiums nationally rose by 10%.