Cost increases tied to market power's impact on payment: Mass. study ... American Medical News

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Recent increases in health care costs in Massachusetts are driven largely by hospitals' and physician groups' market dominance, not by utilization or the quality or cost of providing care, according to a year-long analysis by the state's attorney general.

The preliminary report, released Jan. 29, analyzed five major health plans' commercial contracts with Massachusetts hospitals and physician groups from 2004 to 2008. The analysis concluded that "serious systemwide failings in the commercial health insurance marketplace" exist in the state.

"Our review shows that the current system of health care payment is not always value-based, and health care providers throughout the state are compensated at widely different rates for providing similar quality and complexity of services," Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley said in a statement the same day the report was released.
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