Webcast Launches FH® Healthcare Indicators and FH® Medical Price Index
April 19, 2018
On March 22, FAIR Health President Robin Gelburd hosted a webcast on two new reports that illuminate place of service trends and medical pricing by analyzing data from the FAIR Health repository of billions of healthcare claims. Entitled, “FH Healthcare Indicators™ and FH Medical Price Index™: Providing Clarity in a Rapidly Changing Environment,” the webcast attracted hundreds of attendees from throughout the healthcare sector, including payors, providers, consultants, researchers and government officials. “This is amazingly helpful data,” commented one attendee.
The webcast began with FH Healthcare Indicators, which analyzes utilization and cost trends in retail clinics, emergency rooms (ERs), urgent care centers, telehealth and ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs). Among the findings Ms. Gelburd reported:
- Individuals between the ages of 51 and 60 were the most likely to use retail clinics in 2016;
- A high-severity, life-threatening ER visit cost, on average, $1,049 in billed charges and $399 in allowed amounts in 2016;
- The median charge for a 20-minute new patient office or outpatient visit in 2016 ranged from $176 for an office to $165 for an urgent care center to $99 for a retail clinic;
- From 2014 to 2015, rural growth of telehealth outpaced urban growth, but from 2015 to 2016, urban growth caught up with and surpassed rural growth; and
- In ASCs, women used services more frequently than men in all adult age groups in 2016—a finding common to all the places of service presented.
Ms. Gelburd then presented the FH Medical Price Index, which tracks average median charge and allowed amounts for six medical procedure categories: professional evaluation and management (E&M), hospital E&M, surgery, pathology and laboratory, medicine and radiology.
Reviewing the period from May 2012 to May 2017, Ms. Gelburd showed that charge amounts for both professional and hospital E&M increased more than Consumer Price Index (CPI) Inflation and Medical Care Inflation rates, as tracked by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. In contrast, the charge increases in surgery and radiology were lower than CPI Inflation. The charge increase in pathology and laboratory was higher than CPI Inflation but lower than Medicare Care Inflation; the charge increase in medicine was higher than Medical Care Inflation for much of the period, but by May 2017 was just under that rate.
The two reports are available free in the form of a just-released white paper. In addition, Ms. Gelburd explained, FAIR Health can customize the reports to fit clients’ needs. For example, market indices can be striated at the regional, state or geozip level. The rate of inflation in the healthcare sector can be dissected into micro-level clinical markets, such as oncology, behavioral health and specialty drugs. Trending reports can isolate different treatment protocols and can be confined to a specific number of years. Businesses can use such reports to develop budgets and allocate funds, and governments can use them to evaluate the need to draft or amend statutes and regulations to liberalize access to alternative places of service that might be of value in a jurisdiction. “We’re excited about the limitless types of indices and trending reports our billions of claims can help fuel,” said Ms. Gelburd.
To view the archived webcast, click here. For more information on customized indicators and indices, contact us by email at info@fairhealth.org or call us at 855-301-3247, Monday through Friday, 9 am to 6 pm ET.