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Health Care Costs
Rising health care costs remain a major challenge in California and across the nation. CHCF's work sheds light on trends in state and national health care spending, as well as on the affordability of health care for consumers, to spur dialogue and action toward policy solutions.
Sign up for CHCF updates on Health Care Costs
Publication

Care in the COVID-19 Era: An Analysis of California Community Clinics

July 2020
Abby Sears
Telehealth, Behavioral Health
The COVID-19 pandemic is having unprecedented effects on California’s health care delivery system. OCHIN is a nonprofit information technology and research organization that includes 29 health care organizations in California. This issue brief uses OCHIN's unique data sources to show how the pandemic is impacting health and the health care system in the state.
Publication

The Financial Impact of COVID-19 on California Hospitals

June 2020
Glenn Melnick, Susan Maerki
Health Care Costs
As COVID-19 containment efforts took hold, patient volume at California hospitals fell precipitously as hospitals discontinued elective and nonurgent care while drastically increasing inpatient bed supply to treat a predicted surge of COVID-19 patients. This issue brief provides initial estimates of some of the immediate financial and longer-term impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on California’s hospitals and health care system.
Collection

Controlling Health Care Costs

Health Care Costs
Health care is too expensive for many Californians. CHCF offers these resources that detail where health spending happens, why health care costs are increasing so rapidly, and what policymakers could consider to improve value in the system.
Publication

Examining the Authority of California’s Attorney General in Health Care Mergers

April 2020
Samuel M. Chang, Thomas Greaney, Katherine L. Gudiksen, Jaime S. King
Health Care Costs
The health care industry has recently experienced horizontal, vertical, and cross-market consolidation unprecedented in scale and scope. This report examines the California attorney general's existing merger oversight authority, compares that to the authority held by other state AGs, and then offers a series of considerations for policymakers interested in ensuring that California’s health care markets operate in a more consumer-friendly manner.
CHCF Blog

Ever-Rising Health Costs Worsen California’s Coronavirus Threat

March 5, 2020
Kristof Stremikis
Health Care Costs
As the novel coronavirus continues to spread, it is important to remember another significant threat to the health of our people — soaring health costs.
Publication

Getting to Affordability: Spending Trends and Waste in California’s Health Care System

January 2020
RAND Corporation
Health Care Costs
Health care is still far too expensive for many Californians. Crucial to any cost containment effort is a detailed understanding of what costs are being reduced, where they are coming from, and who has the potential to capture the savings. This report focuses on the landscape of health care spending and a framework for understanding cost containment approaches in California.
Publication

2020 Edition — Health Care Costs 101

May 2020
Katherine Wilson
Health Care Costs, Payment & Financing
US health spending reached $3.6 trillion in 2018. National health spending grew 4.6% in 2018, a slightly higher rate than the 4.2% growth in 2017.
Publication

Commissioning Change: How Four States Use Advisory Boards to Contain Health Spending

January 2020
Glenn Melnick, Susan Maerki
Health Care Costs
Controlling the growth of health spending is central to any state effort to achieve universal coverage and to relieve consumers struggling with out-of-pocket costs. California can learn from four states that have established state commissions to measure, monitor, and set targets to control health care cost increases.
Publication

The Sky’s the Limit

October 2019
Richard M. Scheffler, Daniel R. Arnold, Brent D. Fulton
Health Care Costs
California pays significantly more for common health care services than the rest of the country, and the gap has been widening. A critical factor in the fast growth of prices is market concentration — including hospital consolidation and physician integration — which has been proliferating in the state. The Sky’s the Limit: Health Care Prices and Market Consolidation in California looks at the data and the policies that can be considered to address this serious concern.
Publication

The Secret of Health Care Prices: Why Transparency Is in the Public Interest

July 2019
Katherine L. Gudiksen, Samuel M. Chang, Jaime S. King
Health Care Costs, Data Exchange
Data transparency is core to bringing down health care costs. This report looks at the legal and economic implications of releasing data on the amounts paid for health care services, including negotiated rates between insurance plans and providers, as a means of controlling costs and increasing access to care.
Publication

2019 Edition — Health Care Costs 101

May 2019
Katherine Wilson
Health Care Costs, Payment & Financing
National health spending grew by 3.9% in 2017, slower than the 4.8% growth in 2016. This Almanac report, Health Care Costs 101: Spending Keeps Growing, details how much is spent on health care in the US, which services are purchased, and who pays.
Publication

Infographic — US Health Care Spending: Who Pays?

May 2020
Health Care Costs, Payment & Financing
Over the past 60 years, the way health care is financed has changed, with public insurance paying for more care. This graphic shows who paid for health care and how much it cost.
CHCF Blog

California Cost & Quality Atlas Helps Map Path to Higher-Value Care

April 3, 2017
Jeffrey Rideout
Health Care Costs
When it comes to health care services, geographic differences in cost and quality are neither expected nor valued — and now researchers are compiling and sharing data that could help reduce disparities.
Publication

California Health Care Spending

September 2017
Katherine Wilson
Health Care Costs, Payment & Financing
Health spending in California totaled $292 billion in 2014, which is 12.6% of the state's economy. See California's health care spending numbers for private health insurance, Medi-Cal, and Medicare.
CHCF Blog

Uncompensated Hospital Care Costs Sink to Record Low in California

February 20, 2017
Jen Joynt
Health Care Costs, Payment & Financing
As California's uninsured rate plummeted during the first two years of the implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), uncompensated care costs for California's hospitals followed suit, declining 52% from $3.1 billion in 2013 to $1.5 billion in 2015. This progress may be in peril, however, if efforts to repeal and replace the ACA are successful and the uninsured population increases.
Publication

Health Spending Projections: 2015–2025

November 2016
Robbin Gaines
Payment & Financing, Health Care Costs
National health spending will reach $5.6 trillion by 2025. Get the data on payers, per enrollee costs, payment sources, and spending on types of services.
Publication

Fundamental Concepts for Managing Risk and Understanding the Total Cost of Care

April 2019
Sandra Newman
Health Care Costs
This CIN resource is designed to serve as a primer for anyone interested in gaining a better understanding of health payment models in California and nationally. It focuses on concepts and terminology related to value-based payment models and to health care delivery models and systems. 
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