Press Release: “A new study published today [August 3, 2015] found state-level prior approval authority over individual market health insurance rates were in effect from 2010 to 2013 was associated a 10 percentage point lower rate of increase in premiums.The research was published in the August issue of Health Affairs, and was conducted at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health in collaboration with the University of California, Berkeley School of Public Health.”
“Study authors collected rate review authority and anticipated loss ratio requirements from each state and the District of Columbia by examining statutes, regulations, and bulletins and distributed a questionnaire to each state and the District of Columbia.
‘Our findings suggest that rate review by states with prior approval authority may be a viable option for moderating the growth in health insurance premiums,’ said Richard Scheffler, Ph.D., principal investigator and distinguished professor of health economics and public policy at UC Berkeley. ‘Given the massive rate increases in premiums being proposed this year, our results could not be timelier.'”
The full press release can be read here.
The full article, published in the August issue of Health Affairs, can be read here.
An article by Petris Center Director Richard M. Scheffler and Christopher Whaley, H. E. Frech III, Benjamin R. Handel, Liora Bowers, and Carol J. Simon was published in the Review of Industrial Organizations journal on July 15, 2015.
“‘Accessing Accountable Care Organizations: Cost, Quality, and Market Power,’ a special issue of the Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law (volume 40, issue 4), is an in-depth look at accountable care organizations (ACOs): networks of hospitals, physicians or other health care providers that share financial and medical responsibility for the coordinated care of a patient.