Primary care offers patients a critical connection point to the health care system. With contact, continuity, comprehensiveness, and coordination as its base1, primary care has been shown to improve h...

Rural hospitals in the US have closed at a rapid pace in recent years, raising concerns about decreased access to care and declining competition in rural markets. Because prices paid by commercial health insurance plans are negotiated between hospitals and insurers, hospital closure may give “surviving” hospitals increased leverage to negotiate higher prices. Using commercial claims data, we studied the effect of hospital closure on the prices charged by nearby surviving hospitals. We found that hospital closures during the period 2014–18 led to a 3.6 percent increase in prices at surviving hospitals, driven by larger price increases in the three to four years after closure. Price effects were concentrated among surviving hospitals with market power—hospitals with system affiliations and hospitals operating in less competitive markets. We also found that closed hospitals charged lower prices than nearby hospitals in the preclosure period. Thus, closure eliminated low-price hospital options from rural markets. Overall, our findings suggest that hospital closure can have a meaningful impact on commercial prices. Policies targeting rural hospitals should consider the anticompetitive effects of closure, in addition to devoting continued attention to access to and quality of care.

Abstract. As policymakers continue to grapple with rising health care costs and prices, understanding trends and variations in inpatient prices among hospi

Biologic drugs treat a range of diseases such as cancer, diabetes, retinal diseases, Crohn's disease and many other conditions. Despite accounting for use by ju...

Because health care costs should be available to everyone.

Convenient as it may be, beware of getting your blood drawn at a hospital. The cost could be much higher than at an independent lab, and your insurance might not cover it all.

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Important research is underway to understand the impacts of Long COVID. Studies about the clinical pathways, patient-specific needs, and treatment for Long COVI...