Over time, this means “physician-hospital integration could conceivably offer some distinct efficiencies in terms of higher quality of care at a lower cost,” McWilliams said by email.
Still, price hikes for people with private insurance—often provided to U.S. workers by their employers—are probably going to lead to higher out-of-pocket costs for patients, noted James Reschovsky and Dr. Eugene Rich of Mathematica Policy Research in Washington, D.C., in an editorial.
“The higher prices in hospital outpatient departments are passed on to employers in the form of higher premiums, and ultimately to workers in the form of less generous health benefits, higher premium cost sharing, or lower wages,” Reschovsky said by email. “Certainly patients with co-insurance would pay more out-of-pocket when the price of service is higher.”
