Dr. Scheffler, Dr. Fulton, and Graduate Researcher Daniel Arnold, along with Dr. Sherry Glied of New York University, have a newly published paper in Health Affairs this week. The paper, “Differing Impacts Of Market Concentration On Affordable Care Act Marketplace Premiums,”examines recent increases in market concentration among health plans, hospitals, and medical groups in order to see the impact of these mergers on consumer’s costs. Specifically, the impact of concentration on health insurance premiums was examined in two Affordable Care Act state-based marketplaces: Covered California and NY State of Health, both for 2014-2015. Ultimately, the paper finds that both states exhibited a positive association between hospital concentration and premium growth and a positive (but not statistically significant) association between medical group concentration and premium growth, but differed between the two states, with premium growth in New York yet negative premium growth in California, potentially the result of the marketplace’s selectively contracting with health plans.
The full paper can be read on the Health Affairs website here.