Top

Avoiding unnecessary care: Does insurance coverage matter?

March 1, 2017

Consumer Reports‘ “Choosing Wisely” initiative aims to identify high-cost, low-value treatments that can often be avoided.  One question remains is why do providers still offer these services?  Do payer coverage policies or reimbursement rules affect these choices?

A paper by Colla et al. (2017) attempts to answer that question.  The authors used commercial payer claims data from the Health Care Cost Institute (HCCI) and Medicare administrative data to examine whether the use of low-value care is similar between Medicare and commercially insured populations within a hospital-referral region (HRR).

Read More on Healthcare Economist