Health plan price data could get easier to use www.benefitspro.com/2025/12/23/e... #healthcare #healthpolicy #healthecon

CMS said TiC data “has been difficult to access due to oversized files, duplicative data, and information that could not be easily compared across the health insurance landscape“ www.healthcarefinancenews.com/news/cms-pro... #healthcare #healthpolicy #healthecon

CMS proposes tightening insurer price transparency requirements buff.ly/7g0kEfb #healthcare #healthpolicy #healthecon

"David Muhlestein is out with another study that broadly finds insurers aren’t even publishing all the necessary data for the right things, which technically violates the law," via @bobjherman.bsky.social in @statnews.com buff.ly/X6xYl2E Full study at buff.ly/luPZM4l #healthcare #healthpolicy

25 years ago today, SCOTUS elected George W Bush president of the United States by blocking completion of a voting canvass in Florida. A subsequent canvass by the Associated Press showed that Bush's rival, Al Gore, had won the race in Florida—and thus the contest for the presidency—by 700 votes.

Research in AJMC Population Health, Equity & Outcomes "asserts that three of the country’s largest health insurers — Aetna, Cigna and UnitedHealthcare — have not fully complied with federal price transparency rules designed to help employers control #healthcare costs"

Payers called out for price transparency failures: A study rates Aetna, Cigna and UnitedHealthcare on compliance with Transparency in Coverage requirements, finding major gaps among all three major U.S. payers buff.ly/IHMYnur #healthcare #healthecon #healthpolicy

Three of the nation's biggest health insurers have provided an incomplete picture of their negotiated prices in transparency data that's required by federal rules, via Axios buff.ly/qkpuJPf #healthcare #healthpolicy #healthecon

Insurers not fully complying with price transparency rules, via Becker's buff.ly/BiFWx7N #healthcare #healthecon #healthpolicy

Insurers are required to a monthly files listing their negotiated rates with every #healthcare provider. New research finds that UnitedHealthcare is only reporting prices for 8% of hospital inpatient services & Cigna is only reporting 20% of prices for hospital outpatient services

Health insurers' Transparency in Coverage (TiC) data is a powerful resource for understanding and controlling #healthcare costs. But new research from David Muhlestein & Yuvraj Pathak finds that some of the largest insurers are posting incomplete TiC data. buff.ly/luPZM4l #healthpolicy #healthecon

Johnson & Johnson ERISA suit over drug costs dismissed by federal judge, who ruled that plaintiffs failed to show they had standing to allege that the company had breached its fiduciary duty. Plaintiffs were given 30 days to file a third amended complaint. buff.ly/Q7cyH58 #healthcare #healthpolicy

December’s Lipid of the Month, alpha-pinene, one of the compounds in conifers which contribute to the distinctive pine forest smell

There are several jobs open at the Peterson Center on Healthcare & the Peter G. Peterson Foundation in communications, grant operations, and programs:

I volunteer with Neighbors Together because their model is powerful and unique: They provide people with delicious food, connect them to housing and social services, and advocate for policies to end hunger and poverty. I hope you will consider donating at

Ghost rates in #healthcare payers' Transparency in Coverage (TiC) data can significantly increase the size of data files and make data cleaning far more difficult than necessary academic.oup.com/healthaffair... #healthpolicy #healthecon

buff.ly/FNoOUbd 💕

Ghost rates 👻 negotiated rates for services that providers never perform👻 make insurers' Transparency in Coverage (TiC) files very large & difficult to analyze. New research shows nearly 92% of negotiated rates in TiC data are useless ghost rates buff.ly/lAMotWZ #healthcare #healthpolicy #healthecon

Dermatologist don't do heart transplants. But the transparency in coverage files that insurers release often have rates for providers that do not provide services. David Muhlestein quantifies ghost rates in TiC in Health Affairs Scholar buff.ly/lAMotWZ #healthcare #healthpolicy #healthinsurance

"We’ve been telling Americans to prioritize low-fat dairy products “based on almost no evidence” showing they’re better for health, said Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, a cardiologist and the director of the Food Is Medicine Institute at Tufts University." Amen to that!

"New Jersey's largest health insurer agreed to pay $100 million to resolve allegations that the health-insurance company had ripped off taxpayers by overpaying for care, in a pact made public on Friday." buff.ly/LPzsdG5 #healthcare #healthinsurance #healthpolicy #newjersey

Since 2017, the Lown Institute has held its annual Shkreli Awards to shine a light on egregious examples of profiteering and dysfunction in #healthcare. Ahead of this year’s awards on December 11, they checking in to see what their most disreputable alums have been up to

Legal immigrants face loss of Obamacare help, threatening insurance markets

New analysis from 46brooklyn Research raises questions about Cigna's role in setting #pharmaceutical prices, as its subsidiary Quallent Pharmaceuticals sells generics at prices that skew higher than many competing suppliers buff.ly/YZJjdmy #healthcare #healthpolicy #healthecon

How are states using #hospital price caps to save money? buff.ly/nyBc2hH #healthcare #healthpolicy #healthecon

Looking forward to this Health Affairs event on employers' and unions' perspectives on rising #healthcare prices and the role of middlemen buff.ly/Cf8kLDe #healthpolicy #healthecon #medsky

“Sixty-three thousand dollars for a broken ankle and a cut to the knee, with no head injury or internal damage... just to stay there overnight.” @kffhealthnews.org 

NASHP has released new site-neutral payment model legislation for states to adapt, addressing rising health care costs and payment differences across care settings. See the full post loom.ly/x38PoZY #HealthPolicy #HealthCareCosts

Looking forward to this Health Affairs event on employers' and unions' perspectives on rising #healthcare prices and the role of middlemen buff.ly/Cf8kLDe #healthpolicy #healthecon #medsky

UnitedHealthcare pays the physician groups it owns ~17% more than outside physician groups, according to new analysis of payers' rates in Transparency in Coverage (TiC) data buff.ly/XjCtbR4 #healthcare #healthpolicy #healthecon

November’s #LipidoftheMonth is a rare phospholipid with links to ferroptosis lipidmaps.org/updates/lipi...

Great ep. of @relentleshealth.bsky.social with Elizabeth Mitchell discussing why PBGH embarked on its big #healthcare cost and quality transparency project and how the findings are empowering employers with comparative price info buff.ly/VhXa290 #healthcare #healthpolicy #healthecon

We just dropped this fantastic episode with Elizabeth Mitchell from the Purchaser Business Group on Health (PBGH). It's a must listen for self-insured employers. Check out the show notes for a link to the PBGH Health Care Data Demonstration Project covering... cc-lnk.com/EP491

The North Carolina State Health Plan spends $4.5 billion annually covering the state's public employees. Fascinating case study in Health Affairs about how the North Carolina State Health Plan is trying to become a smarter, more active #healthcare purchaser buff.ly/5zTR21i #healthpolicy #healthecon

New Turquoise dashboard assesses 3 aspects of payers’ TiC files for hospitals and ambulatory surgery centers. This is exciting b/c TiC files are very valuable sources of comparative #healthcare price data, but the usability of the data remains challenging buff.ly/8XhUGRF #healthpolicy #healthecon

"Elevance plans to charge 10% administrative penalties, relative to the amount of claims, if health systems refer patients to out-of-network clinicians." I hope their directories are up to date! buff.ly/Cb4AmJz #healthcare #healthpolicy #healthinsurance

"A federal credit reporting law generally takes precedence over state measures barring medical debt and other items on consumer credit reports, the Trump administration said." via @bloomberg.com buff.ly/VcqPLVT #healthcare #healthpolicy

"Whatever political opposition existed around restricting #pharmaceutical prices via government intervention...seems to have largely disappeared. In other words, price controls are all the rage." buff.ly/MfvxAIN via @axios.com #healthcare #healthecon #healthpolicy

How government drug price controls became all the rage. www.axios.com/2025/10/24/d...

Employers pay ~$20,000 per year for #healthinsurance for employees with families. This isn't about companies' bottom lines. School districts, city governments, public universities are all employers. High #healthcare costs limit their ability to deliver public services bit.ly/4npgnnF #healthpolicy

"U.S. employers and workers are being squeezed by the steepest run-up in #healthinsurance costs in years, with average family premiums nearing $26,993 in 2025 and pressure building for even sharper increases in 2026, according to a recent KFF survey." #healthcare #healthpolicy

In his latest column, KFF’s @drewaltman.bsky.social discusses the obstacles employers face trying to control their health care costs — and why they’ve never been meaningful supporters of government cost-containment efforts. https://on.kff.org/4qmrfoV

For $27K, you could buy a new car — or insure a family of four for a year. New survey shows cost of job-based coverage jumps again. https://kffhealthnews.org/news/article/workplace-health-insurance-premiums-family-plans-kff-survey/

That's basically the price of a car, every year

More detail from Embold about how their quality data was used PBGH's recent project focused on employer #healthcare price and quality data and improving purchasing buff.ly/krkmRuP #healthpolicy #healthecon

I am so excited to see this work coming to fruition! PBGH worked with 5 large employers to analyze #healthcare claims, price, and quality data and to identify opportunities for savings and higher-value care. Learn how employers are using these insights at buff.ly/kJqyNre #healthecon #healthpolicy

California #hospitals are suing over the state’s efforts to curb #healthcare spending buff.ly/Z74OCkR #healthecon #healthpolicy

Very excited to see this coverage in Fierce Healthcare of PBGH's massive data project, which aims to make it easier for #employers to get their arms around what they're actually paying for #healthcare buff.ly/NmZXDkA #healthpolicy #healthecon

Cigna to pay $5.7M to settle 'ghost network' lawsuit over inaccurate provider lists buff.ly/dA3vdmi #healthcare #healthpolicy #healthecon #healthinsurance

AARP received $9 billion in royalties from UnitedHealthcare last year as part of an agreement to continue selling AARP-branded #Medicare products, part of a partnership dating to the 1990s, via @axios.com buff.ly/GpwSTaM #healthcare #healthpolicy