Banning ‘Anti-Competitive’ Hospital Contracts May Lower Healthcare Costs Across US, New Report Says

Banning “anti-competitive” hospital contracting practices could help bring down 🏥Healthcare costs across the U.S., according to a White House Council of Economic Advisers report released Thursday.

The CEA’s latest report estimates that prohibiting hospitals‘ anti-competitive contracts would lower hospital and affiliated-physician prices by 18%, with a plausible range of 11% to 26%, averaging $4,100 per inpatient admission. Meanwhile, a ban would cause employer-sponsored insurance premiums to drop 6.5% in directly affected markets, which would save workers and employers approximately $1,755 per family and $606 per individual annually, the research suggests.

“Anti-steering, anti-tiering, and all-or-nothing bundled contracting are mechanisms by which dominant hospital systems insulate themselves from price competition: anti-steering prohibits insurers from directing patients toward lower-cost providers; anti-tiering is one form of anti-steering that bars insurers from placing the dominant system in a less favorable benefit tier; and all-or-nothing contracting requires insurers to accept every hospital and affiliated physician in the system or none at all,” according to the report.

Though, the CEA notes that the “expected effects vary by market structure,” adding that they project premium reductions of 4% to 6% “in markets with a dominant system and competitive insurers.”

“The Council of Economic Advisor’s findings reinforce that the Trump Administration is delivering meaningful cost reductions for American patients,” White House Spokeswoman Allison Schuster told the