Today’s Boston Globe reported on the study by former DPH official Paul Dreyer disputing some of the findings of the Attorney General regarding hospital pricing in the Commonwealth (background: our report on the AG report).
The AG’s report concluded that “Price variations are not correlated to (1) quality of care, (2) the sickness or complexity of the population being served, (3) the extent to which a provider is responsible for caring for a large portion of patients on Medicare or Medicaid, or (4) whether a provider is an academic teaching or research facility. Moreover, (5) price variations are not adequately explained by differences in hospital costs of delivering similar services at similar facilities are specifically NOT the major causes of rising health care costs.”
In an email, Partners says that
“Mr. Dreyer’s analysis directly rebuts key assertions in the AG’s report and undercuts the AG’s finding that price variation can only be explained by provider market leverage. He found that:
- there is variation in quality among Massachusetts hospitals. Mr. Dreyer’s analysis found considerable variation among Massachusetts hospitals with regard to serious reportable events and mortality rates.
- price is correlated to patient severity (case mix), teaching hospital status, the number of Medicare/Medicaid patients, and costs.
Partners forwarded a link to the full report (pdf), 13 pages plus a 1-page executive summary.
These healthy discussions will play a critical role in the upcoming policy debate on cost control.
